Haukehaien's page

It is actually pending. The warehouse is processing shipments as fast as possible but they have a lot of orders to go through.

Excellent, thanks. I know the warehouse is busy, so no problems there - I was just concerned that the actual order had somehow not been placed properly.

Thanks again.

This has been showing as "Pending" since 2 October.

I also don't find that I got a confirmation email.

Is it actually pending, or did it fall into Never-Never Land?

Thanks,
Hauke

Vecna Lives!
Ghost Tower of Inverness can be very lethal, especially at the end.

1981. Basic Set. My character was ... Blackstar, Human Wizard. I was 11. (Anyone about that age can probably guess why he was named that.) Blackstar made it all the way to third level before I started DMing. Since then, I've only phad a PC a couple of times.

Oh wow, Ghost Tower of Inverness ... that was another one with the "do exactly the right arbitrary thing or you're screwed" setup. I always pictured Gygax and company writing these things like this:

"Okay, the evil necromancer/lich/dragon is here. He needs some weaknesses or the party will be hosed. Any ideas?"

"How about if we say that a halfling priest, wearing a green hat and carrying between 3 and 5 mice can cast 'Heal" on him for 4d6 damage, plus he takes no action that round?"

"No, too easy, how about if a minimum 15th-level thief grabs the cloak from room #23 and acts like a bullfighter? It could make the NLD lose 6 points of Wisdom and act like a bull for 2d6 rounds."

"C'mon, we're not writing the freaking 'Keep on the Borderlands' here! What if a LG 10th-level fighter, blessed by a 13th level priest and wearing a symbol of Law, can wrestle the NLD while a 12th level wizard casts (in this order) 'Magic Missile', 'Flesh to Stone' and 'Sleep', while a 9th-level bard sings a song of valor incorporating the word "Pumpkin"? This will make him turn into a bunny rabbit."

(everybody) "YEAH!!! THAT'S IT"

And then later, my characters ran away, clutching the smoking stumps of their missing limbs, mourning their lost party members and saying, "How can we kill that guy???????"

Good times.

I loved this one, both as a player and as a DM. It was pure FUN, and that's what made it great. After the first time, (with one exception) I never tried to make it part of a campaign, always forcing my players to use different PCs for it, because it IS quite likely to result in sombody dying ... but it was still great fun.

"Go back to the tormentor, or through the arch ..."

Twice a week would be great - but realistically, we'd only get to play for a couple of hours every night. Still, it might be better than it is currently. Right now our group has managed to go through 4 1/2 months of game time in almost three years of playing. :( We often have periods of two months or more where we can't manage to play ... although it can help our planning (you'd be amazed at how complex a plan you can come up with in two months) but I still wish we played more often. My wizard is about to start the blood magus prestige class, and I'm itching to try it out.

The Vecna Lives! module had a similar idea, in that Vecna was attempting to perform a ritual that would banish all the gods of Oerth and make him the sole deity. Not a pleasant thing to contemplate, but might work for you. Your artifact could be used by a demon lord to elevate himself to godship and banish all the other deities. Imagine the effects on divine casters, for example, as their source of power goes away.

I've got the 3.5 Ravenloft setting PHB. I got it because I loved the old Ravenloft, and I like the idea of having it to spring on our gaming group, some misty night when they're camping ...

It's pretty good. It has the Ravenloft feel to it, which is VERY DIFFERENT from the other game settings. Ravenloft isn't about heroic figures defeating evil and living happily ever after - it's about people standing alone against the dark, even though the dark will always win. It's a dark setting and really needs a lot of atmospheric DMing. I can't see players who don't lean more to the role-playing end of the gaming continuum enjoying it for very long.

Overall, I would say that it's still a good setting, the new books are good, and it's worth trying if you want to do a little horror-influenced D&D. White Wolf has the books on sale right now, so it may be a good time to try it.
If your group would like that sort of thing, then I would recommend it. If they're more classic S&S/heroic fantasy, then it might be okay, but it would take a lot of work, and you might wind up changing the setting in a way that would take away its unique flavor, which (at least to me) is its primary appeal. If it wound up just being the Flanaess or Faerun with extra undead, I wouldn't like it - YMMV.

It never has ... if it had, I'd have quit playing. If there's a conflict between things I deeply believe and a game, the game is going. I started playing in 1981. I don't remember where I'd heard about the game, but I bought the Basic Set and started playing - with my Dad first and then later with friends. My father, a Southern Baptist missionary, had no problem with the game, and in fact rather liked it. (Of course, he was the one who'd introduced my to Tolkien and had 10 years' worth of F&SF magazine on his shelf...) Basically, he and my mother saw that the game wasn't harmful in any way, and so never had a problem with me playing.