Jas's page

Thanks for the ideas.

This raises the question of weapons. I don't remember if the guides covered this but would the PCs be "allowed" to be in the cars with all their swords and crossbows? I'm guessing nobody questions this. ( I am probably thinking too much like a 21st century person where we don't even allow fingernail clippers on airplanes. )

I just don't see Sonja the Magnificent putting her +7 flaming sword and Stephen of the Unblinking Eye parking his severed hand of Vekna in the weapon's cart for the duration of the trip.

Those are great! as the PCs get more powerful, I'm going have them do all of that, at one time or another.

In Eberron, I have my 2nd level PCs traveling on the train for several days.

I could just say, "Returning to the train, it took another day of travel to get from Vedykar back to Rekkenmark" But I'd like to add some excitement.

What are some things that could happen that would not involve
- destroying the train
- getting the PCs really dead really quickly
- getting the PCs kicked, or thrown off the train WAY BEFORE they reach Rekkenmark. Being kicked off the train when they reach Rekkenmark would be fine.

My first thought would have the PCs invited into a poker game and a fist fight ensues as they approach Rekkenmark when a drunk human barbarian loses and accuses the PCs of cheating.

I'd like it to involve some minor dice rolling and or role playing but nothing critical, taking up about half an hour-ish of game play. I don't want a full blown adventure, like a murder on the Orient Express scenario.

Any suggestions?

Can I copy and paste out of it as text, or is it locked into being a bit map or some flash based or locked down format?

Doah! (slaps forehead!) I need to write things down apparently, because I totally forgot I asked that question ten months ago. Thanks for the link. No more needs to be said.

NPC villians = Elites. thanks.

For a variety of reasons, I find it better and simpler to write them[NPC villians] using monster rules.

What rules would that be? What page number or area in the monster book? Do you have time to clarify and or go into a bit of depth?

I'm sure I'll hate to ask this but What's a monster builder?
I have a mental image of some sort of SPORE creature maker. You take the head of a kobold, put it on a tangler beetle body and add wings....

What XP would you assign to an adversary that's a class, not a monster? Would a first level human barbarian more likely map to? Would it be 100 xp as a standard monster or 200 xp elite? It's obviously not a 25 pt minion.
Your thoughts?

Thanks all for the advice and ideas.

How do you figure XP points for character like villains?
I have the PCs fighting a....
human 5th level warlock,
human 5th level warlord,
and a bunch of human rabble worth 31 XP each.
What are the rules for figuring out XP for the warlord and warlock?
Any thoughts?

I also like to mine
http://www.mattepainting.org/
or
http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?s=69ebd2bbea4d03304482ed3d592f 50d0&f=196
for ideas for cool settings

I feel the need to point out that the mortality rate was huge.

My dad had me read "Two years before the Mast", an account of a sailor on a "nice" sailing ship in the 1800s? (It's been a while). I remember one part when he had a toothache but the ship was going around the horn of S. America. The captain forced him work, and after 2 days the tooth rotted out and the nerve died.

No clue on the galley slave treatment was so bad. Maybe it's a factor of supply? If the society sees the slaves as an endless commodity, there is little need to treat them well, cause if they die, they will just raid and get more?

Maybe the Greek and Am Indian systems that seemed nicer, had supply problems. Would you treat your car better if you know you could only get 2 in your lifetime vs being able to get 200 in your lifetime?

---
Anyway back to slavery in RPGs. I think if you wanted to "realistic", slavery would be common.
But we ignore a lot of reality in RPGs. Life was short and often brutish, women died a lot in childbirth, diseases were rampant as was tooth decay. Rule of law was who was stronger, not right (and even up to the 1950s in the states, lynching was disturbingly common). Most people didn't read. And of course, realistically there is no such thing as magic, elves, dragons or orcs.

If you are the GM and don't like slavery, don't have it.
IMHO

Rag men, Old Clothes, either way I'm unclear of the concept. Basically, people who resold used clothes? In medieval times, I assume clothes had to be really worn out to be thrown away?

This may been discussed already, I have not had time to read all the posts.
I did a lot of casual reading about slavery for a quixotic attempt to convert the TORG universe into GURPs.

In the real world, as apposed to RPGs
In societies that did not have the tech to make engines or the fuel to run them, slaves and serfs were needed because human and animal muscles were the only available power source to do work. Animals could do the push-pull work, people were needed to do the thinking work.
As steam engines and internal combustion engines were created that could do the work of muscles, societies had the luxury of evolving away from slavery.
When slavery was the only option, it seemed societies evolved rules to be as "humane" about them as possible (Ancient Greece). When societies started to think of slaves as motors on feet, they seemed to be more cruel, (1800s slavery)

Hi all
I'm checking out the medieval town generator at http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/. What are Jewelers in a medieval context and why would a town of 900 have 2 of them but only a 50% of a blacksmith? Seems really high. Is it a bug, or an actual reason?
Also what is an Old-Clothes person? the medieval equivalent of a clothing thrift store?

I don't have my books with me. How old is the lastest incarnation of Sharn? I know it was built and leveled a couple of times. How old is that latest version?
I'm looking to define a timeline. Something like, the top level of Sharn has towers build in in the last 300? years. Middle Sharn was 300 to 600? years old, while lower Sharn building are 1,000? years old. However the chambers below the city go back 5000? years to the first goblin inhabitants.

Wildcard series by George R. R. Martin. It's the first book rebooting the series.

Cool. They brought that back? I liked the first several books of the first series. Is it still a shared universe?

just once, I want the succubus to come up the the party, cast her spell over all the men and yet have the gay dwarf stop her because he's not totally enthralled by her.

The Mercy Thompson Series is a series of urban fantasy novels written by Patricia Briggs that follow the adventures of Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson, a Native American shapeshifter who was raised by Werewolves. The series is set in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state in an alternate world in which Werewolves and certain types of the fae have been forced to reveal themselves to the public.
that has a secondary character of....
Warren, a homosexual werewolf (who is dating Kyle, a well-known divorce attorney) and one of Mercy's closest friends. He is also Adam's third in the pack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mercedes_Thompson_Series

Mercedes Lackey's "The Last Herald Mage" trilogy.
I have a love hate relationship with that series. The characters are openly, unashamedly gay. But then they are put through hell and end up miserable and alone.
Why does this bug me? Until the 1990s, if you had serious gay characters, They had to be monsters, dead or so miserable they wished they were dead by the end of the story. This way nobody would consider acting out on their gay feelings because obviously they would end up alone or dead or some sort of freak.
Boys in the Band = Miserable. 10 = Gay secondary character has his lover leave him by the end of the story. The Last Herald Mage = the gay characters are tortured and die and they only place they reunite is in death. Bleah!

OpenRPG is what I have used. It's text chat, maps, and dice rolling. For me, stripped down simple.
But it seemed to be less and less people.
I'll have to check out the others.

http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=orpg

I got the impression that humanoid slavery was outlawed in the "civilized" states, like Breland or Thrane, and only existed in the fringe states like the one run by the monsters (Droaam?) or pockets in the Lhazaar Principalities to the East.

I found Fables in the library. Pretty great stuff.

I just did a purge of my comic collection. This is some of what I kept
Watchmen
Xombie
Enigma
Alan Moore Swamp Thing
(for nostalgic reasons) original Legion of Superheroes before the Reboots
Astro City
Rising Stars
Alan Moore Top 10
Hammerlocke
Neil Gaiman Sandman
Killing Joke
Psycho
Kingdom Come

I find I keep the stories with a end to them. They don't go on and on, till the original characters are distorted and soap opera-ed to death, till any shred of what you fell in love with the story and the characters, has been erased away. The Xmen come to mind. For example when I started the Xmen Kitty Pride and Colossus were destined to be couple. When I last read the Xmen, Colossus was gay and with Northstar. That's as bad as NOT making Element Lad in love with Sean in the reboots.

I seem to remember the 3.5 Changling source book telling a story of a great changling who had dozens and dozens of personas, from dwarf to orc, so I got the impression they could change from 3 foot high to about 9 foot. Maybe that was just artistic license.

Thanks for the discussion. I like the idea that most of the time elemental is like a willful horse or bear. Not exactly sentient, but able to justify a rampage if released.

PsychoticWarrior, If you had a fringe group of crazies trying to release all your elementals, do you realize you sort of recreated the PETA movement in the D&D world? (P.E.T.E. - People for the Ethical Treatment of Elementals) Though I don't think it would last long. In the real world, it's not really acceptable to stab them. In the Eberron, well.....

I'm reading the Eberron source book. It tells about how the ships, airships, trains or even swords may have elementals bound to them. I am overthinking this but do the elementals mind being bound to the air ship, sword, what ever? Depending on the nature of elementals, it could have a cruel slavery aspect to it.
Is it an individual elemental, pulled from it's elemental plane? Does the mage pull a random but specific entity, so it would be like a mage kidnapping Bob the Blacksmith from town and binding him to a forge somewhere else. In elemental land, do they have routinely lose loved ones to the bondage of the material world? "Pyre was taken 300 years ago and his children and grand children have all perished of old age."
Or are they happy as clams in their new place so long as they can manifest their powers. Pyre, trapped in a sword, is content so long he gets to immolate something once in a while.
Have books or other source books, or you all, addressed this?

Fun. I still have my copy of Metamorphis Alpha! It's worn and has 3 ring binder holes in it, but it's well loved. Looking forward to seeing how they update it.

Not legal (not even any question in this case since the Eberron trademark is involved), but there's a good chance you'll get away with it. Maybe if there's enough stuff like that WotC would C&D the archive site in question eventually.

Man, that's just stupid and short sighted on their part. I am learning that is their way, however.

It's still not clear to me. If I post my home made 4e Eberron adventures to, say...an rpg archive site, for others to use and adapt, when I'm done with them, that's not legal?

Not being familiar with Forgotten Realms from before, can someone explain what the Underchasm is? That big black blot on the map titled Underchasm is where a huge underground chamber hundreds of square miles that collapsed? I assume everything underground was crushed to pulp.

A theme seems to be the underground kept the Drow contained. If the Drow are down there, and now they don't have a roof for several hundred miles, why don't they they just climb out/fly out/get out?

The thing on the map of the East Rift that looks like an outline of a stomach, is that chambers that are still underground?

If you think it's crammed full of everything now, you should have seen it pre-Spellplague.

I got that impression from of the threads in the archives. They had a laundry list of favorite characters that were apparently killed off. That and some love hate thing for a drow named Izzy or something.

I have not really looked into the D&D worlds much in the last 15-20 years. When I played, it was always in some vaguely Tolkeen European land. We never really gave the scenario much thought or care.
Last year or so, I found the Eberron universe. Then they changed the game system. It seemed streamlined and for someone not particularly invested in the 3.5 mythos, it seemed more fun.
I’m looking forward to getting the Eberron players guide and campaign guide in October to compare.

While waiting, I got the 4.0 "Forgotten Lands" players guide and campaign guide from the public library. I didn't know anything about the FL so I came in with fresh eyes. I like the land motes. Visually fun. The world seems a bit kitchen sink-ie to me. Like they tried to cram everything in. If in Eberron, there was a place for every race known so far, it seemed that in FL they tried to make a place for every plot device or story idea ever created. Playable but awful dense and keeping track of the 8 billion city states was mind boggling.
I did some searching of the Pazio archives. I found there was a huge amount of history and back story invested in FL. It feels like the first Legion of Superheroes reboot. I like the 4.0 version, but I can see why people might be upset.

If Eberron doesn't pan out, Forgotten Realms 2.0 looks like a good second choice.

Rogue != Rouge! HA. I even used to live near the Rogue river!
That's what I get for spelling phonetically and then mispronouncing words.

>> And spending a feat on the Rapier isn't a bad choice at all, if it fits the character.
I decided to spend the feat on
Weapon Focus -- Light Blade
The +1 damage for daggers, short swords and shurikens seemed like a good idea.

Pop'N'Fresh
Uhhhh, It's in the Player's Manual? Oh I get it. RTFM.

Grimcleaver
I don't get a bonus for rapier? [page flip...page flip...page flip...] Oh, guess not. Ok, no rapier. Reading up on shurikens, they look effective.
Looks like some combination of short sword, daggers, shurikens and sling.

Matthew Koelbl
Another vote for short swords, daggers and shurikens.
I'm trying to use straight 4.0 but probably having legacy 3.5 in my head carry over. I'm reading these rules on the bus so I must have missed something.

Ok, here is my dirt stupid question....

So far, I'm having great fun making a halfling Rouge. With his acrobatic scores, he's going to be climbing everything. First up the cliff, in the tree branches, or up onto the third floor balcony.

A halfling gets an advantage if they use a sling or crossbow. There is a certain dramatic flair for a sling, but it only does 1d4. and a crossbow takes a minor action and does 1d6 and has a longer range.
Why would a character want a sling?

A halfling is suited for a dagger, short sword or a rapier(maybe?). A rapier would be very dramatic, though possibly as tall as my halfling.
Is there any reason a first level halfling rouge shouldn't have a rapier? A halfling is already small, so are daggers be a bad choice, over using a short sword?

How many weapons can I use and/or be good at, as a first level? Can I carry and use a rapier, with daggers in reserve, a crossbow with a sling in reserve?

What's a splat book?

I skimmed the Eberron Player's Guide, and I was pleased with the skim. Maybe a bit "lite" but over all it looked playable.

DMG page 57.

Ohhh. That's exactly what I was missing. I don't know why I kept skipping that section. It makes sense now. Thanks!

I'm building my first adventure in years and my first 4th edition ever.
I'm going to have a party of about 5, mix of characters at first level, a Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Warlord, and Rogue. I want to have a chamber full of minions for a massive roll fest encounter.
How many decrepit skeletons or goblin minions would be appropriate to challenge 5 characters without quite killing them.
Are guides for this in the DMs guide that I missed?

Bankruptcy and someone important to me being Bi-Polar.

Cryptonomicon was my last Stephenson book. It was so bad, for me, that I wanted a refund for the hours I wasted reading it. I have not wanted to risk another of his books, because it might be as pointless and boring as Cryptonomicon.

McCain's just showing he's hip and with it, Daddyo. He probably just rented that D&D movie with Tom Hanks and he want to protect the country's youth from D&D's dangerous influence. Next, he's going to reinstate the Comics Code and enforce Decency on TV. Course that would gut the Faux TV lineup so he'll probably have to flip flop on that one.
---
I liked the comment. "Well, that lost McCain a whole three votes."

Ha! point taken. Will calm down and wait and see.

I've been ruminating on why I like Eberron and I'm bored with vanilla D&D. If I had to pick the most important thing, it's the incorporation of Magic.
In vanilla D&D, magic is rare. Magic is what that creepy and feared guy does in the tower out side of town. With Eberron, magic has been incorporated into the culture. It's an extrapolation of "if magic was possible", what could they do with it. It gets the stories out that annoying feudal dark ages mind set. The city of Sharn is the most extreme example of that. A whole city, made possible by magic. That's just fun.
is there any discussion if the powers-that-be want to shatter the floating city, stop the trains, extinguish the sun rod, just to make magic rare again?

...Eberron on the other hand i really enjoy. My understanding is that the PoL concept will be brought about by a rekindling of the Last War. Basically it will be like Eberron's own version of Twilight 2000.

Gakkk. That sound bleak. If they do that, then I'll be forced to liberate the game play rules for Artificers and Dragonmarks and so on, and apply them to the 3.5 Eberron universe, where the scenario is more fun.

I had 30+ years invested in the legion. When they rebooted them, I had to quit. It was like talking to someone you used to know who had undergone botched brain surgery. They looked the same, but they were not the same people. I enjoyed the adult legion stories from easier this year. it was like revisiting old friends. Now, to see if the adult Legion's Element Lad, is still gay, or at least Bi.

i thought the TORG game system was unplayable. Loved the scenario, but the game play was awful. Just my two cents.

Hijacked from another thread but it seemed appropriate here.

WotC have become enforcers for the Tyranny of Equality. From WotC's standpoint all settings must be playable by all age groups, all races, powers, etc. must be made equal or else.

That sounds like they are going the GURPS route, so game play is roughly the same across all scenarios. I don't have a problem with that. A 120 point wizard vs a 120 pt norm vs 120 pt super vs 120 pt alien would still be roughly equal in combat and game play.

But if they are trying to flatten all the D&D versions into the same theme, that's just boring. That would be like all the GURPS universes being simplied where every adventure was in a post-collapse-of-civilization kingdom, where magic, tech and powers were rare and or stunted and mosters lurked outside the gates, be it a sword and sorcery, cyberpunk, space, uplift or supers game.
It seems like a plan to kill the franchise from boredom. If they do, I see them loosing market share as people hack the game back into something fun or abandon it for something that's more fun.

Hey can anyone here point me at a good form fill-able character sheet that I can use with my Kindle Fire?

I'd like to see a bit of support for this rule set. It seems to be little used any way to make it a bit more workable?

How much should I raise the CR of a haunt if I make it immune to Channel Energy?

Been playing around with the race guide and decided to go Marvel Pathfinder style. I built the following races:

We will be running a Tier 1-3 Pathfinder Society adventure with one player playing a Human for the control.

I'm trying to come up with three edicts for a Goblin Samurai, I need them to be as twisted and Goblin-like as can be and still fit. Some Humor is accepted.

I sat down and worked on this a few nights ago tell me what you think

Half-Nymph
Half-Nymphs Racial Traits
-2 Strength,+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma: Half-Nymphs are beautiful and graceful but weak.
Subtype: Humanoid
Medium: Half-Nymphs are medium creatures and do not gain any bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Half-Nymphs have normal speed for their size and have a base speed of 30 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Half-Nymphs can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Dazzlling Beauty (sp): Half-Nymphs may may dazzle a single target as a gaze attack (-1 to all attack rolls for the next round. Usable 3 times per day)
Inspiration (sp): Touch inspires a target for Charisma modifier in rounds adding +1 to all performance skill checks.
Stunning Grace (sp): may use the Daze spell 3 times per day as a Spell-Like ability.
Languages: Half-Nymphs speak Common and Sylvan.
Half-Nymphs with high intelligence scores may choose from the following: Aquan, Celestial, Elf, Gnome, Gnoll, Goblin,Kobold, and Orc.