Greenhawk326's page

BTW: I wrote a nice long message back on the subject of North Korea, but the Board ate it. Spared you that ;D But I've gotta go now, so, I'd just refer everyone to David Fryer, Steven Purcell, Xaaon of Xen'Drik, and 8th Dwarf, who contributed ideas that I referenced in my post. They all mentioned considerations important to any discussion of war within the context of this post. I hope all people who glibly call for "kicking ass" will really read these, and think on the consequences to millions of people.
I am much more of a hawk than a dove, but as most military people will tell you, war is a very serious thing, and should not be taken lightly.
Thanks.

I think we agree far more than we disagree. I have long criticized our support for certain dictators, but I have looked at reports detailing the genocides and mass killings that have taken place since we were able to record such things, and the ones perpetrated by our opponents in that struggle were orders of magnitude larger than those pertetrated by any of our friends, allies or puppets. It does not excuse any of them, and I would love to have solved the problems without any "Blood on our hands", but I think as I said before, that sometimes we've been in situations that provided no good choices, just ones that reduced the carnage. Others had worse consequences than we could have predicted, but still not worse than the consequences of inaction.
Also, in the entire History of the World, has there been a major power or empire that has been more benevolent? I fail to find any. We are the product of flawed human beings, flawed decisions, many greedy people, just like every other group in the world, but at least most of us try, and are willing to criticize ourselves much more than most.

Cheers, BT, and keep talking! Everyone needs some good discussion! Better learning through conversation! (Better than most media & entertainment, anyway).

I am actually quite heartened that most of the comments here are intelligent conversation.
The fact of our deteriorating financial situation is one that Bitter Thorn wisely brings up. Our domestic politics, being what it is, is unlikely to permit any intelligent solutions, however. The Public wants to have all things for all people, and will refuse to make any necessary sacrifices unless forced by disaster. Reforms of our Social Security System, Benefits and Services nationally, as well as California's retirement system for it's state workers, etc., are things that are well-known to have promised more than can be delivered, and must change at some point, but it is political suicide to try to effect any meaningful change, so both parties will wait until crisis looms, and the results will hurt worse.
Our Defense and Foreign Aid Spending, while huge, is still dwarfed by other Non-discretional Domestic spending (entitlements, or re-distribution of wealth), and any suggestions to reduce any of that are met by cries that the one making the suggestion hates whatever group may be affected.
The answer to Bitter Thorn's last question, which is one of the most important questions of this Century, is for now, under the current Administration likely to be a VAT (Value Added Tax). This is in many European countries designed to take the place of Sales Taxes, but here, since Sales Taxes are the province of States (and some localities), it will be in addition to current taxes.
President Obama has stated that he will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 Annually, but that will only be Income Taxes, etc., as a VAT is hidden, added to Producers, which will, of course, have to pass it on to the Consumer. This will result in a) higher prices, b) reduced business activity, c) increased cheap imports, or d) all of the above.

Bitter Thorn is good at pointing out failures, some just failures of prescience, as years or even decades passed before the leader in question became a problem. The Shah of Iran was quite a reasonable moderate leader for many years before power currupted him as power does to mmost mortal leaders. Saddam Hussein also deteriorated over time, and was only preferred in comparison to the alternative at the time - fanatic religious Fundmentalists. Osama bin Laden was merely part of a group of the Mujahadeen that were resisting totalitarian control by the Soviet Union, which had it's eye on expanding to the Indian Ocean. The only things in it's way were either Iran or Pakistan. Don't you think that our failure to act there would have been even more destabilizing to the region? India would certainly have been very nervous, as well as Pakistan, who supported the Afhganis, hence their ties to the Taliban & Al Qaeda, to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding further around them.
Yes we have had failures, but those of predicting how someone will change or turn out over the years, and he fails to think about the fact that the alternatives were not likely to be peace and flowers. Sometimes there have been no really great choices, just ones between bad guys and much, much worse.
And the "record of doing poorly in the regime-change game" completely ignores the millions of people living prosperously and happily in Europe, Japan, South Korea, the Pacific Islands, etc. Did "we" not have a major hand in how these societies have developed? Many faults we have, but compare that record to the conditions of any nations or regions in which our rivals have controlled or influenced development more than we have, and I think "our" failures pale in comparison.

For all intents and purposes here, Zurai, you are totally and completely wrong. The crops got cold (hence were affected), but if they resisted (made the Fort Save, in effect), they took no damage (i.e. did not wilt).
See Blackwing's thankfully provided example above.
Even the described "tingle" in the section about what a character feels when in the area of, or targeted by, a magical effect, means that the character is affected by something, resisting it just means that no quantifiable negative effect occurs.
Option #2 Wins by RAW.

Also, the opportunities to learn things about Varisia's ancient past, Thassilon, and the Runelords, bit-by-bit, without just feeding a bunch of info at once, makes for a better story, and lets them start to understand what's going on as they progress. I think it really makes the flavor of this AP. Without those little opportunities, and their gradual pacing and introduction, the AP would be rather more typical and mundane, IMO.

Actually, I would start with #1, just modifying it a bit, for the characters to arrive just prior to the Swallowtail festival for whatever appropriate reason. The encounters will be relatively easy, but simple to make a bit more challenging, and there are some clues, or foreshadowing (from Nuallia's journal) that are very good to have as you progress to Magnimar in the Skinsaw Murders. Also, a couple of encounters in the Vaults below Sandpoint are still challenging for higher characters and can be TPK deadly for low-level ones in a small party, if a couple of ST's are failed.
I think you really miss out on some role-playing aspects, as well as the feeling of knowing and having a stake in Sandpoint, which will be important in later parts, if you skip it altogether.
Remember, if you don't boost encounters much, they'll get through them faster, and with less experience, so they'll quickly be back to approaching the proper levels by #3. But I'm so much more into the story than making everything touch-and-go deadly, and dislike losing too many party members, more so than most DM's I guess.
The group I am running through it already lost one in #1. But I still think that without much tweaking, I could make it pretty challenging for even 5th level characters, being there are only 4. My party has 5, plus the occasional Non-Party NPC. There are some pretty tough encounters, and it's also nice to have parties be able to handle some things easily once in a while, making them feel heroic, not just lucky to be alive.

Greenhawk326 wrote:

Where is this information? I have looked everwhere I can think of, and cannot find any additional material. Please help me out!

I think you're looking for this blog post. It is the only official supplementary material for Magnimar that I know of.

Thanks! I found it referenced elsewhere, and searched through the blogs, and found it!

My players had some near slapstick funny moments as they followed Iesha down to Aldern, with one in the rear (two stayed at the top) slipping and taking the others with him, in turn runing into the goblin ghouls who were moving up to meet the first ones coming down...
Iesha was also not being careful, and had slid down past the goblins, then met them sliding down on her way back up. One character just jumped off into the water, only to have Iesha slide back into the water a second time...
In the end, they got out of the way, she met Aldern, and two of the characters made it back in to watch her tear Aldern to bits.

I have also played every version of the game for 30 years, and agree with the idea that death occurs at the moment that the already defined condition described as "death" occurs. It is a mistake to move things to "top of the round", or "end of the round", because there actually is no such thing. It is a matter of convenience, as you have to start somewhere, but after the beginning, it is a continuous flow of events.
I will say that since I both need characters to fear death (except for the crazy ones), I also need players to fear character death, so they don't get any obvious breaks. I will also say that my style of gaming is all about the story, so I dread character death, but let it happen when it does. I also say I have made tiny exceptions, with an action that happened on the very next initiative count, after a character would have reached death, keeping in mind that each count is roughly one-fifth of a second.
As far as the person falling into the pit, I treat grabbing someone, etc., as like an attack of opportunity. If someone is within reach, they can make an attempt as an immediate action. This gives plenty of opportunity to save the character, imo. The character will get a reflex save in most cases, unless he's being careless just jogging through the dungeon, or whatever. Some falling situations even get a second chance to catch ones'self on the way down (losing whatever's in hand, of course). Then the chance of someone nearby trying the grab...
If they still fall, none of my players will hold it against me.

I am an avid believer in great detail in locations, especially cities, and do not have time to flesh out a large one myself, so I was very pleased when I read within the adventure that there was additional maps detailing exact locations and details for many places within Magnimar, and this supplemental information was available for this product here on the website by looking at the product the Skinsaw Murders.
Where is this information? I have looked everwhere I can think of, and cannot find any additional material. Please help me out!

-Greenhawk

I am an avid believer in great detail in locations, especially cities, and do not have time to flesh out a large one myself, so I was very pleased when I read within the adventure that there was additional maps detailing exact locations and details for many places within Magnimar, and this supplemental information was available for this product here on the website by looking at the product the Skinsaw Murders.
Where is this information? I have looked everwhere I can think of, and cannot find any additional material. Please help me out!

-Greenhawk