Hurmferd's page

Hi, I've been trying for a week or two to process my items in the above-referenced order. The system keeps putting my items in the sidecart for delivery with my May subscription for PACG, but I'd like to get these shipped now, not in May.

I tried to change the shipping option from "combine orders" to "ship as soon as possible", but that set of buttons is greyed out on my page.

Please change that order to ship as soon as possible.

Thanks!
Joe

Hello,

I've changed my payment method for this order; please re-try. The wait is more horrible than the anticipation.

Thank you,
Joe.

To whom it may concern,

A week or two ago, I changed my credit card due to expiration, but after doing so I don't think that it triggered the delivery of AP #26 (since I did not receive an email or product). Please press the button to send me AP #26. I'd hate to miss it!

Thanks,
Joe.

After our first rollicking, frenzied, knock-down, drag-out, shouting match of a game last night, my family has declared the Battlestar Galactica game our current favorite, hands down. This game is a keeper, and it'll be in the front of my bookcase on the easiest-to-reach shelf.

Here are a few highlights as to what made the game so much fun for us:

1. The game is essentially a team vs. team game, humans vs. cylons (i.e. androids), although the members of the cylon/android team may not be fully known until the end of the game. I find games that require teamwork, as opposed to "every man for themselves", are much more involving, and this game really gets the players interacting.

2. The cylons/androids want to kill the humans, as you might expect, but the mechanics of the game allow the cylons/androids to remain disguised as humans while they attempt to sabotage the efforts of the humans. Thus, it's sort of a detective game, like Clue, as the human players try to identify the cylons/androids. We had a huge amount of fun trying to figure out who was a cylon while accusing everyone else of being cylons! There was lots of finger-pointing and excitement. Trust no one.

3. There was enough action and involvement that no one became bored while waiting for their next turn. Each player's turn tended to go slow, expecially since this was our first game, but after a few turns everyone got the hang of it and the pace picked up. Everyone had different jobs to do, but all players were involved in assisting--or sabotaging--everyone else, so there's not really any downtime. Each turn there was a new crisis to overcome, whether fighting robots aboard ship, engaging in ship-to-ship battles, or repairing damage, or... Well, you get the idea.

4. Finally, if some of your friends lean towards the theatrical, there can be an element of roleplaying to the game as you take on the personas of the Battlestar Galactica characters. Roleplaying isn't necessary, but if you are a roleplayer at heart, then you can have a lot of fun with this, especially if you've watched the Battlestar series. Even if you haven't watched the series, don't worry, the roles are fairly generic to the science fiction genre and it's easy to use your imagination. Two of our players had not seen the series, but enjoyed themselves immensely as our admiral bellowed out orders, as our fighter pilots screamed for backup, and as the politicians, well, pontificated. Some of our group hammed it up and that only added to the game's intensity and silliness.

This game comes with my highest recommendation. Give it a try.
Hurm.

Here is a link to a thread on EnWorld that is a thoughtful discussion of further refinements to skills and skill consolidation.

LINK - Click Here

Hurm.

Whenever I've DM'd, I've made changes to my player's campaigns so that it was "My Campaign". My players have now been playing through the SC campaign for two-and-a-half years of play and I've made a few substitutions that have worked out very well. Here are a few of my changes (at a high level).

I'd be VERY interested in hearing what other substitutions and changes other DM's have made that have generated a lot of player enthusiasm.

1) Life's Bazaar - Played through as is. The team had LOTS of fun in Jzadirune and then a knock-down-drag-out fight with Kazmojen in the Malachite Fortress. On www.theRPGenius.com website, there are a number of files which add wonderful color and flavor details to the city of Cauldron!

2) Flood Season - Due to a player death, our team instead trekked off to Sasserine in search of a rez (I used the "City State of the Invincible Overlord" from Necromancer Games, and it's a VERY fun and unique place for players to experience!). The players then went on a quest into the Amedio Jungle to earn the 5,000 gp for the rez (using "The Elephant's Graveyard" adventure from Dungeon Magazine #15).

When the team arrived back in Cauldron, they went hunting for a Wand of Water Control in Richard Pett's "The Styes" module.

3) Zenith's Trajectory - I first ran our team through The Demonskar Ball - from DelvesDeep on www.theRPGenius.com. It was a HOOT! And our players had wonderful opportunities to interact with many of the Cauldron personalities, including Lord Valanthru.

Our team then followed the Zenith module verbatim until they entered the Underdark on their way to the Shrine. At this point, I replaced the small Kuo-Toa temple in the original SC module with Gary Gygax's "Shrine of the Kuo-Toa" module D2 (with key SC campaign locations and encounters cut-and-pasted into the shrine). My player characters met up with Gygax's Svirfneblin team early in the adventure and they agreed to work with each other to invade the Shrine. And instead of a few battles in the original Zenith module, the players were involved in HUGE battles across Gygax's Kuo Toa city. It was epic.

4) Demonskar Legacy - My team battled through the tax riot and also the fire elemental attack, and are now making their way to find Alek Tercival. Alek is imprisoned in the starry mirror, but the starry mirror is in a midlevel section of Monte Cook's "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" module. When my players arrive in Hommlet in a session or two, they'll know that something's up... I have a couple of players who are well aware of historical D&D modules such as ToEE and have played the ToEE computer game, so my PLAYERS will have an idea of what might be coming, but their CHARACTERS will be a bit surprised.

Hurm.

One quibble that I've had with 3.5's Search skill, and now Pathfinder's Perception skill is that a rogue is able to spot traps and secret doors from 10 feet away or more (depending on available lighting). I contend that an ingenious villain with access to talented craftsmen might hide some traps and doors from sight by hiding or disguising their mechanisms and seams, and these features would only be detectable if a thief senses them by touch (effectively requiring the thief to move within 5 feet of the target).

Therefore, as a minor change to this skill, I'd like to see an entry that adds detection of traps and secret doors by touch. Obviously, to detect by touch requires that the rogue be within armslength of the trap or secret door and should provide a DC bonus, possibly as much as +5 or more. Perhaps if the thief misses his Touch Perception DC roll by 10 or greater, then the trap might be set off?

This change would eliminate the arguments by my rogue players that ALL traps and secret doors can be detected at a range of 10 feet.

Hurm.

I've had great fun purchasing and reading books that were recommended in the "If you Only Read One Book..." thread, so I thought that I'd start a similar thread for short stories.

What short story have you read that flared so brightly in your mind that it rivals even full-size novels? What was about the story that left you pondering for days? The elegant storyline? The tight pacing? A flawed character? A briefly-explored thought that could've filled numerous volumes?

You're free to recommend novellas as well, but try not to toe that line too much. :) Oh, and if you can remember, please be sure to mention within which compilation or magazine you found these gems, especially if it's not a well-known author.

I'll start with a couple. You'll note that I most enjoy horror tales...

The Autopsy by Michael Shea. A memorable protagonist encounters something horrific. Gruesome and intense. Can be found within "The Dark Descent" horror story compilation on ebay or Amazon.

The Raft by Stephen King. It was made into a movie which was actually very good for a King translation, but the book was far more intense. I immediately had to re-read it. This short story was brutal and King has a knack for getting you to like his characters just before he drops the hammer.

The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. Yes, this is a novella, but I believe that it's his best story overall. Being alone in a place that you cannot escape generates terrific dread.

Have fun
Hurm.

I've skimmed the Pathfinder RPG alpha document and have seen a few changes that will help to speed combat, but I'm hoping that the final version of the Pathfinder RPG will include some concepts that are specifically intended to speed up our game. Combat at levels 10+ tends to bog down into tedious comparisons of rules and statistics and I feel that this is one of the main reasons that DM's and players avoid mid-to-higher level games.

I have not seen this (i.e. Speeding up combat) stated as an objective of the Pathfinder RPG, but I believe that this ought to be a key design consideration if we're to consider this RPG as a next step in the advancement of our roleplaying game. Perhaps there's no avoiding some slowdown in a game as complex as D&D V3.x, but any rule changes should be examined as to how they impact game speed (perhaps this is already occurring, and I've simply overlooked the efforts).

So far, what I've seen that may help are:

- Streamlined Grapple (less referencing of rulebooks)
- Streamlined skillsets (fewer numbers to track and remember)
- Some tweaking of spellsets and feats that might free the DM from recordkeeping ("at will" useage vs. "once-per-timeframe").

But these changes in themselves may not dramatically improve the flow of the game.

My gaming group already follows and uses a number of time-savers to speed up our game (e.g. we avoid side conversations, the players knkow to pay attention, we use a whiteboard to visibly track initiative, we pre-calculate all weapon attack bonuses, we use condition cards, etc.) but I still find that my games tend to slow most often in the following areas:
a) spells require unique judgement (and rules comparisons);
b) movement of players involves special rules considerations;
c) attack vs. defense calculations require special judgement; and
d) difficulty checks must be uniquely calculated and cross-referenced due to multiple conditions.

Thoughts?
Hurm.

I've been keeping an eye on the Savage tide adventure path and, for most of it, I haven't been very interested. I'm not a big fan of pirate adventures. But now, with the incredible "The Enemies of My Enemy" module which delivers interactions with Orcus, Igglewilv, Charon and the river Styx, and other legendary demons and a High Noon endgame showdown with Demogorgon, I'm considering grafting that ending onto the Shackled City campaign. The ending to Shackled City campaign was good, but it didn't really wow me. The Savage Tide ending certainly ups the wow factor!

My PC's are only now entering the Zenith Trajectory module of Shackled City, so I have time to make this happen. On the surface, it appears that this might be a relatively good merger. Consider:

- The ending of Shackled City brings the PC's into contact with Adimarchus, a split personality demon (sort of), similar in some ways to the two-headed Demogorgon scenario (as much as I can tell at this point without being able to yet read the Savage Tide ending).
- Both campaigns feature demons and planar travel. It shouldn't be difficult to swap a few campaign details in and out, although the foreshadowing would all need to be thoroughly reworked.
- To kick off the Savage Tide endgame and a trip to the planes, the Savage Tide has a key NPC female kidnapped. A kidnapping of Jenya would seem to be able to fulfill this campaign element since the PC's are intimately tied to Jenya and would be angered at her kidnapping.
- The Savage Tide campaign depends upon the collection of black pearls of power (although I'll need to study exactly how these fit), so I believe that I might be able to substitute the collection of the Shackleborn as a similar lead-in campaign element. This will need work, I'm sure.
- Since the NPC kidnapping does not occur until the PC's hit approximately level 15-ish, it would allow me to complete the PC's uncovering of, and showdown with Vhalantru as a beholder. It would also be after the fight with Vitrus Bale and perhaps after the excellent "Foundation of Flame" module wherein Cauldron is destroyed. I'd have to work out how to tie these into the Demogorgon story, but I'll bet that it can be done!

Thoughts?
Hurm.

My players are now beginning the final battle(s) in the sunken church in the Styes adventure (Dungeon #121) and are in a somewhat difficult predicament. I'm seeking some suggestions as to how to manage the upcoming battles to both make them thrilling and to avoid a TPK, if possible.

Here's a summary of the situation:
- The party "defeated" the programmed images from Sgothgah, "The Whisperer", at the Temple of Tharizdun, but 2 party members (a rogue and a barbarian) are now enslaved and have led the party to the sunken church.
- Aside from the rogue and barbarian, the party does not know that Sgothgah is nearby, or that 2 members are enslaved.
- The party is fully rested and also includes a paladin, warlock, cleric, and ranger.
- In the sunken church, at Sgothgah's direction, the enslaved rogue pointed out the 2 aboleths (disguised as schools of fish) to the party by asking for a detect magic to be cast. The party does not know that the schools of fish are aboleths, only that they radiate magic, and the 2 schools (aboleths) swam out of the range of the PC's vision as soon as they were noticed. The 2 aboleths are readying to attack the party, and this is where the night's session ended.
- From the adventure description, Sgothgah's objectives would be to a) have the party kill the 2 aboleths who guard the church and to b) leave Sgothgah's juvenile kraken ward (not yet discovered) to continue to live and flourish. I suppose that Sgothgah might desire to kill off the party once the 2 aboleths are disposed of.

HOW DO I MAKE THE BATTLE EXCITING WHILE AVOIDING A TPK?
- Once the 2 aboleth guards attack the party, I plan to have Sgothgah join in the battle to help the PC's. This will make for a titanic clash of monsters, reduce Sgothgah's health and arsenal of spells, and similarly reduce the threat of the 2 aboleth guards.
- I believe that the 2 aboleths would focus on Sgothgah once he(?) joins the fray since there is already quite a bit of animosity between them and they'd want to make sure that Sgothgah wouldn't escape a second time.
- The enslaved rogue and barbarian would tell the party (at Sgothgah's direction) to only attack the 2 guard aboleths. Should I allow a chance for the enslavement to fail if Sgothgah is seriously injured during battle?
- If things go poorly for Sgothgah, I'd have it move to the pit area to attract the kraken's attention for assistance. This would alert the PC's to the kraken's existence. I'm also considering having the battle draw out the Kraken, even if the battle is going well for Sgothgah.
- I'm trying to dream up ways to alert the party that something is definitely wrong with the 2 enslaved party members. They suspect something with the rogue, but really don't have a clue.

Does this seem like a reasonable approach? Any other ideas?

Hurm.

To draw my players deeper into the Shackled City campaign and to increase their enjoyment of it, I've recently started weaving special character-based plots and rewards throughout it. For now, I'm focusing on adding guild involvements (using the excellent "Guildcraft" pdf from Bastion Press as a guide) and items that my players have expressed a desire in obtaining (using ideas and rules from WOTC's "Weapons of Legacy" book).

I'm interested in hearing what concepts other DM's have added to their campaigns to make it more unique and enjoyable for their players.

Here's a list of my players and what I've been working on for them:

Half-elf Thief
GUILD: After finishing "Life's Bazaar", this player was visited by the Last Laugh and will join them as a novice guildmember (which will, of course, run her into trouble later in the campaign).
ITEM: At some point soon, she will purchase/find a legacy item with the Dancing Blade ability that she's always wanted, but of course she'll have to work to develop her knowledge of the blade.

Halfling Paladin
GUILD: The paladin has recently met Alek Tercival, and Alek has offered to provide instruction and guidance for the up-and-coming Paladin. (It'll be tragic when Alek dies...)
ITEM: A family heirloom will be brought to the Paladin during the next module. At that point, the Paladin's father has died and bequeaths an ancient sword to him which appears to be a standard +1 longsword...
This individual also wants/needs the Boots of Springing/Striding that will be obtained when they rescue Shensen.

Barbarian Fighter
GUILD: This player unexpectedly runs into (literally) the chieftain of his tribe--I've been developing stats for a tribe in the Hellfurnace region. The chieftain reinforces their bond and the two of them exact a blood promise to support each other when most needed (which could involve a barbarian horde getting involved later in the campaign).
ITEMS: In an upcoming meeting with a dragon during Zenith's trajectory, the fighter will find what appears to be a standard +1 greatsword...

Human Sorceror
GUILD: I'm still researching a Sorceror's Guild to add. I haven't found anything in the Greyhawk Gazeteer that really grabs me, but I'm also examining what guild might be useful to port in from the Forgotten Realms or another setting.
ITEM: He found a staff in a recent treasure that radiates magic and is researching it, but he hasn't yet unlocked the first legacy power.

What have other DM's added for their players? Maybe I can steal some ideas...

Hurm.

As if Cauldron didn't have enough intrigue and politics and backstabbing going on already, I've begun working the Cult of Vecna into my Adventure Path campaign. The "Whispered One" will not be pleased that my players are working against his plans (e.g. thwarting Skaven Umbermead in the Kopru Ruins in the "Flood Season" module) and he will indirectly guide his cult to attack the players when they least expect it.

I intend to draw a wealth of information about Vecna and his cultists from the "Vecna Lives!" and "Die Vecna Die!" modules (published long ago by TSR and WoTC, respectively), and my players' ultimate battles against Vecna will provide other optional adventures as they rise in power.

Has anyone else expanded on the Cult of Vecna in their campaign schemes? I will need to convert many stats of the cultists (and extraplanar beings) from D&D 2e to V3.5 and, as I do that, it would be interesting to hear what other cultist plots are being hatched against unwitting players.

Hurm.