Gillian Wiseman's page

Jerett Schaufele wrote:

verdigris wrote:

Porcine Pendant

Lets see, a dancing pig with spots that fascinates people. This is a little gonzo for my likes.

I dont think the game mechanic was the right choice. How would a dancing multicolored pig make people like the owner more?

I think the writing was good however.

Thank you for your critique. Your thoughts coincide with Jerry's that it was too much whimsy for this competition.

I do want answer your question regarding the charm person effect:

It is a fey pig, created using the fey animal template from Land of the Linnorm Kings. Using this template, a 0-3HD animal has either faerie fire or charm person as a spell-like ability. In this instance, I went with charm person. The multiple colors were from the hypnotic pattern spell. As for the dancing, well who wouldn't stare at a dancing pig?

I loved this item. I didn't think it was too quirky or gonzo. I have a traveling bard in my campaign who is ssooooo going to have one of these the next time he comes through town... and I bet at least one PC will want it!

I'm wondering if this would be a fun book for me to pick up.

The following situational modifiers apply:

1) I play 3.5, not Pathfinder
2) I play E6 aka "epic 6th" wherein spells top out pretty much at 3rd level, with a few 4th level effects available with "work" from multiple casters. PCs stop leveling at 6th and gain only feats thereafter.

3) I own no previous Pathfinder books.

Would there be enough goodies in this book for me to be interested? I LOVE low-level magic items, potions, alchemical stuff, weapons, etc... but I don't love "gonzo" or very weird stuff, and I don't use gunpowder/firearms.

I got a really good suggestion over at ENWorld - I'm going to have a 3rd group intervene at the Keep - an arrogant Paladin who won't work with any non-good or non-human (she's a human racist with feminist overtones) folk is demanding that Burr-buggle (the grippli wizard) and his band stand down and let HER take over the siege. Of course, he refused, and then a brawl began between the two.

The bandits made a counter-attack, and at least one got away. Now the Paladin is sieging, Burr-buggle and his group are hiding in the woods, and the bandits are hoping for reinforcements soon.

And then the PCs arrive. Naturally, being half non-human, not lawful good, and mostly not female, the Paladin will dislike them almost as much as she dislikes Burr-buggle's group.

We'll see who they decide to align with. Bad NPCs they already dislike, "good" NPCs they'll dislike on introduction, or evil bandits. LOL!

Thanks, y'all. Some good, meaty ideas here.

I think I'm going to do two things; hint that the NPC group was waylaid on the way (the PCs find a scene-of-battle) and lost some members. This will be an excellent ambush site for whatever monster I choose...

And then, the open gate/heads on pikes and a single survivor (I think it will actually be the catfolk rogue, as the PCs like him the most of all the NPCs). They'll be nicely aggravated that they didn't get to kill off the "dratted grippli" themselves!

And then, they'll discover that the most evil NPC member HAS joined the bandits and will fight against them with all the brutality they know he's capable of, but has not yet displayed. They'll enjoy taking him down probably more than the Staglord, who has not made much impression on them up to now.

In my campaign, which is really dungeon-based, but I've thrown in a lot of Kingmaker locations outside the dungeon, my pcs have suddenly (after getting beaten up badly in the dungeon) decided to go bandit-hunting for a while.

The situation is this:

A second NPC adventuring party (whom my PCs mostly dislike) announced 10 days ago that they had discovered the location of a large "bandit keep". They hired 8 1st level warriors (we're playing 3.5) and claimed they were going to "lay siege" to the Keep.

Now, the PCs ignored this for 10 days; at that point they decided to go after the other group. Not being great trackers, and not knowing where the Keep was, they hired a local ranger to lead them to the Keep. It is a few days travel away, in a hilly, lightly wooded region, near a large lake.

My PCs are 5th level, so I've added a bunch more lower-level bandits (doubled them, and upped them to 3rd lvl warriors), and have beefed up the lieutenants a little bit.

But, my quandary is; why haven't the other party managed to wipe out the keep? What's going on? They are also about 5th level; a grippli wizard, a fighter/cleric multiclass, a fighter, and a catfolk rogue. They have their 8 1st level warrior henchmen as well.

What are some fun things that could have waylaid them, or problems they could have encountered? The NPC party is really borderline evil. I could even see one or two of them joining the bandits!

I really like both the stormrider's saddle, and the chess board/movement item...

How about a piece of furniture: a folding camp chair. It might actually be used by an adventurer! It could be a divining item (sit in the chair beside the fire, and gain a vision about a task you wish to undertake), or a way to watch/guard camp while still gaining some rest.

Maybe while the chair is occupied, an Alarm spell surrounds the camp at a certain radius, and the person in the chair gets 1/2 the number of hours spent sitting credited as "sleep", so a 4 hour watch shift counts as 2 hours of sleep.

I haven't read every post in this thread, but I'd like to just say a few things about Adventure Paths, Modules, Golarion, and my purchasing patterns.

I bought RotR, Kingmaker and parts of a couple other adventure paths. I ran part of RotR, and am using parts of Kingmaker in my current campaign. As a DM, I got BORED running RotR, because I was making so FEW design and creative decisions as a DM.

However, Golarion is a very distinctly flavored world (for comparison, I play an E6 version of 3.5e) and it doesn't really suit me. I would LOVE to have Paizo-quality adventures that were NOT Golarion specific, that were fairly low-level and were easy to tweak to fit my campaign world (at least some of the time).

So, I don't buy Paizo adventure paths, or modules. And I mourn... :(

Even a "twice yearly" compilation of adventures that were generic would THRILL me.

Since they are currently standing outside the fort watching it, I'd do one of three things:

1) have the Staglord and some of his higher level associates leave the fort together, obviously riding out to do something nefarious. This leaves the fort ill-defended and much easier to attack. It would also be an interesting time to try to get in disguised as other bandits.

2) have the PCs watch a group (maybe with a small wagon) arrive, stay a couple of hours, and then leave with obvious prisoners. Slavers have come and bought the captives! They don't have to be nearly as tough as the fort, but should have a couple of tough-looking guards to make it a good fight.

3) have the PCs notice that someone ELSE is spying on the fort. Maybe a lone druid NPC? Or a small band of non-evil fey? Or even a trio of other adventurers who have had run-ins with the bandits and don't like them. This gives the PCs a chance to try to recruit allies, or at the very least, observe a different group assault the fort and get beaten off...

I'm strongly considering converting Kingmaker to my campaign world - but running it with the e6 rules (found here: http://esix.pbworks.com/)

(E6 is essentially dnd that caps out at 6th level plus feats for advancement beyond 6th.)

Has anyone tried this? What would be the biggest problems? I'm aware that the published campaign is geared to finish at above 12th level, though I don't remember now just how high it tops out. Would it be impossible to adapt?

Oh! I like the idea of not having to go to Jorgenfist at all. I haven't read everything with this in mind, but does it sound possible to do this:

1) PCs arrive in Sandpoint after Hook Mountain, with two motivations - attend the anniversary party of the raid, and do some research on the name Mokmurian (they'll have been told that a book usually held in the archives at Magnimar is on loan to Ilsoari at the Academy in Sandpoint).

2) the raid on Sandpoint is going to be a bit bigger and fiercer, with Mokmurian (knocked down to about CR 13) as well as the dragon and his giant bodyguards present. Mokmurian himself has come to get into the region below Sandpoint. They should be ninth level by now.

3) During the raid, the sinkhole into the Scribbler's lair collapses. Mokmurian is slain by the party (I hope) either in the town, or as he enters/interacts with the lair. They'll get to hear Karzoug's eerie message.

4) the PCs find a partial library within/under/near the lair, and a linkage to a much abbreviated runeforge, where they can power up their weapons to some degree. In the library they also find information to pinpoint the location of Xin Shalast physically. By this time, they should be pushing 10th level

5) they travel into the mountains, and find the lost city. Epic battle ensues.I'm hoping they'll be at about 10-11th level at this point.

I have 7 players, who are all quite good, though only one is a real min-maxer. I can control the power level pretty well, so that doesn't bother me. I just hope that they won't be disappointed at not getting to go to higher levels...

But I'd much rather wind the story up in a more or less-intended way than just burn out on the whole thing, which is where I'm headed right now.

My PCs are at the end of book 3 of RotRL and I have made a very sad discovery about myself as a DM. I really don't like adventure paths.

I LOVE the story of RotRL, but I'm not enjoying running it very much. I want to constantly modify, tweak, add, subtract and reinvent the whole storyline, which is exactly what I started the adventure path to avoid having to do!

I guess the paths just don't really fit my style as a DM.

The point of my question here is, do you think I can trim portions of the path out to minimize the remaining length without sacrificing the overall plot?

For example, I'm thinking that once the PCs get going towards Jorgenfist, Conna will find them and talk to them before they invade the giant camp. She'll escort them through the upper level of the dungeon, down to around B12/13, where they'll be met by the priestesses, who won't be misled by Conna's escort of the party into thinking they're "friends".

Does this seem possible, and what other short cuts can I take to reduce the length of the campaign? I'm not worried about having to make changes in power level; I can handle that easily enough on my own...

Thanks for any advice!

Watcher, thanks! You've given me some really great ideas...

I don't think they're strange - just sort of arbitrary! This is the first thing they've "leapt on" in the whole campaign, and it would have to be something difficult for me to envision the results of.

But I think I'm actually going to foster some of their plans (at least exploring the wreck) by giving them some water-breathing potions from the Graul House (if they DARE drink anything they recover there!).

One PC did dive on the wreck, and I didn't describe any bodies in the wreckage; so I think I'll have them find only a couple of bodies (sets of bones) that appear to be the security guards (maybe they have distinctive armor or belt buckles or medallions). They could easily be partly buried in the mud near the wreck rather than fully within it. Or under it...

My PCs have become fascinated by the sunken Paradise barge - they want to raise it - partly to search for treasure, and partly out of sheer PC cussedness, I guess.

They've hired Irontooth to get a team of oxen, ropes, pulleys, etc... to do the work with. They intend to drive a couple of posts into the shore to act as anchors and work from there.

I am going to have the divers attacked by giant gar (they've already been warned about their presence) but I'd love some suggestions of other problems they can run into during this process.

They have NOT heard yet about the tattoos (I think that Irontooth will turn out to have one, and tell them about it). Right now, they're off in the woods at the Graul homestead, so I have time to come up with "what happens"...

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions!

Nor did they ever destroy the runewell under Sandpoint.

They're now finishing up "the Misgivings" and will soon be leaving Sandpoint.

What will Elyrium do? What will happen to the runewell? Should I drop some hints that they need to go back and deal with this loose end, or not?

To pathfinder.

Thank you,

Gillian Wiseman

Thanks! That will help a lot. Anybody else have any other info, opinions or advice on the subject?

I'm actually going to get to PLAY in this campaign; I'm thinking of running a character addicted to Shiver. But the player's guide doesn't go into detail on what Shiver does to you while you're taking it. What would the penalties be if you tried to take actions while under the influence? How long does a dose last? How expensive is it? How hard to get?

I realize that the background in the booklet assumes you've "cleaned up" and are no longer addicted. How hard is it to break such an addiction? How long would it take? Can magic help? If so, how, and if not, why not?

Is there any place I can get answers to these questions?

Thanks for any input.

Gilladian

After SoS sounds manageable. I don't mind the power level for the PCs so much as I just find it gets to be a real chore to RUN the game, and it becomes illogical for the game world to exist as it exists in low-power form with superpowered characters running around.

I also know my limits as a DM. I've been running games for over 25 years, and I get TIRED of the high level stuff. I get sloppy and the game gets out of control.

Fortunately, my players agree with me. We like lvls 4-10 best, and are only willing to play higher levels for a short time. I'm hoping that STAP is good enough (and I expect it to be...) to hold all our interest. But having browsed through the last couple adventures, I know my gamers (15 years experience with two of the three) would not enjoy it.

Thanks for the advice, though; I'm looking for more!

I've never been a fan of "going to hell" or other plane-shifting types of adventures, so while I'd love to run the early portion of STAP, the second half leaves me a bit uninterested.I also dislike running DnD campaigns past about 12th level or so.

Any suggestions on how to neatly conclude this campaign early? What is a good stopping point? What points need to be covered? What would be some of the problems?

Has anyone else done this deliberately?

I actually had a good experience in school once; it was with my SCA costuming. I used to bring my embroidery to school, and sit in the back of the room couching gold buillion on trim.

My history/english teacher (double class) demanded to know what I was doing; when I showed him, I ended up giving the whole class a ten minute demo and explaining why I was making a 12th century tunic. I worked on it for most of that semester... and everyone in class who came to the demo we had that spring got extra credit in class.

One of the things I learned from DnD was how to control or dominate a group - in other words to be a leader.

I'm female, and I was always the DM from about age 17 on. Do you know how hard it can be to be the one female in a group of 8-12 guys? And the "boss" of the group? You learn techniques for getting and retaining their attention, administering discipline (in a subtle way) and time management, etc... that have stood me in excellent stead throughout my life.

I'm a librarian and teacher now; I write my own course materials (plan adventures!), manage class groups from 2 to 20 people (run the game session!) and more; I blame all my success on my early career as a DM.

And I still play - with my parents, my spouse, and my two best friends, among other folk. There's nothing better than DND or RPGs in general for crossing generational barriers and bringing family and friends together.

I was 10 or 11, back in about 75 or 76, when my older brother told me about DND. He'd learned in Boy Scouts. We didn't have a copy of the rules, so he wrote them down from what he remembered.

I rolled up a couple characters who died very quickly. My first real memory is of a cleric who wandered around in a dungeon and heard an intense buzzing noise. I searched and searched for the cause of it. Finally found a secret door and opened it, only to be stung to death by a hive of giant bees.

Later I created my all-time favorite character, a dwarf named Gilladian. He had a six intelligence and a 4 wisdom. He had a mule companion called Mule-go-bang who kicked down doors for him, since he couldn't find traps on his own.

I remember a couple years later when we moved to Texas, my dad told us "there's a game shop in town." We were so thrilled! We spent hours every saturday at the Bunker.