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Hello everyone! It's good to be back as Paizocon after taking a couple of years off. This will be the third time I have run this at Paizocon, and I'm really looking forward to taking it for another spin. Feel free to post any questions about the event here, and welcome to Antarctica!
Sad news, I have a lot of fond memories of Mike from back in the day. Farewell old friend, "kono sora wo daite kagayaku shounen yo shinwa ni nare!"
I also will be at Paizocon again this year, and I believe I still owe you a beer...
I've been thinking about playing in one of these for awhile now. The timing is good, and this one sounds like fun, so here's my character idea: Name: Quicksilver
Even at a young age, while she was being raised by a group of traveling Varisian performers, it was clear there was something special about Quicksliver. Born blind, with striking silver colored eyes, she nevertheless possessed an uncanny ability to perceive her immediate surroundings without sight. Trained as an acrobat and performer by the Varisians, she spoke little, but laughed often, and quickly became one of their most popular attractions. As she grew, her strangeness only increased, she developed a talent for fire-eating and fortune-telling, and began to deliver cryptic prophecies that came true with disturbing regularity. On her 18th birthday, she received a startling vision of a great treasure surrounded by darkness and lies. Taking it as a sign, she convinced her Varisian companions to travel with her to Kaer Maga, where she believed her vision would come true. But during their first night in the city, the group was attacked by bandits, and all her companions were slain. Quicksliver survived by hiding in a ruined building, but now she must face the treacherous city alone with only her enigmatic vision as a guide.
Actually, I played the gold dragon in that campaign. I remember that character cause of his ridiculous diplomacy score. He had a ton invested in it already (gold dragons having a rather high Cha) and then he plucked the permanent +20 diplomacy card from a Deck of Many Things (it was that kind of campaign) giving him a score somewhere in the 40s or 50s IIRC. Good times :D
Parking should not be a problem, the hotel has a very large parking lot, although much of it is behind the hotel, so be sure and drive around it if you don't see anything out front.
I emailed you my character Sozin. No one made a healer, so I made a halfling oracle.
I don't have a strong preference, but I only have access to the core rulebook, so I'll probably make something pretty basic.
I'll take some as well, yummy! I'll be there starting Friday morning.
If there's still a spot open, I'd love to play, it sounds like a lot of fun!
I'm going to the meet and eat this year, possibly with a friend of mine, but we'll see what his work schedule looks like.
I was originally planning on running 2 games this year, but it doesn't look like I'll get the chance to put a 2nd one together, so I'll settle for running the game I ran last year again. Title: Risen Beneath the Ice
I had a blast running this one last year, so here's hoping it goes as well again.
I'd be interested in what system this is. Is it simply a modernized PF with rifles as the ranged weaponry? It looks interesting. More or less. Basically I just took 3.5, invented some custom weapons, condensed a few of the skills, made up an alternate hp/healing system, came up with some gear, and gave all the characters a few feats and some special "class feature" abilities. The system was inspired by James's Unspeakable Futures, but I came up with all the rules myself.
NAME:________________________________
STATISTICS
DEX 17 (+3) CON 13 (+1) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 8 (-1) SKILLS Acrobatics +9
Languages English, German, Mandarin, Japanese FEATS
DEFENSE
AC 15
Fortitude +2
GEAR Colt M1911 (25-ft range, 7-round clip) 2 clips pistol ammo 4 hand grenades (10-ft radius, 5d6, Ref DC 15 half) Combat Knife Flack jacket & camo suit (+2 AC) 4 Dynamite Packs (8d6 damage, double damage to structures with a DC 15 Explosives check, can set time delay with a DC 15 Explosives check) 1 Ultimate Bomb (as dynamite but 15d6 damage, requires DC 18 explosives check to arm correctly) 4 vials of paralytic toxin (3d6 Str damage/—, DC 18 Fort Save) 1 vial of death toxin (3d6 Con damage/—, DC 18 Fort Save)
Base Attack +2
ABILITIES Evasion Flurry of Blows Poison Use Sneak Attack +2d6
NAME:________________________________
STATISTICS
DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 13 (+1) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 17 (+3) SKILLS Bluff +9
Languages English, German, French, Latin, telepathy 100-ft FEATS
DEFENSE
AC 15
Fortitude +3
GEAR Colt M1911 (25-ft range, 7-round clip) 4 clips pistol ammo Combat Knife Flack jacket & camo suit (+2 AC) substance 34A-2 (restores psy-points to max, 2 doses) substance 79E-1 (acid grenade, deals 4d6 acid damage 15-ft radius, DC 15 Ref save half, 4 vials) substance 99XX/? (use unknown, imbibe only as last resort) OFFENSE
Base Attack +1
ABILITIES
Psy powers:
0-points: Assense Aura, takes 1 minute, search for other intelligent minds in the area (approx 500-ft radius) 1-point: Psychic Assault, 3d6 damage, Will DC 16 half, mindless creatures are immune 1 point: read thoughts, Will DC 14 negates 2 points: daze creature for 1d4 rounds, DC 15 will save negates, failure by 5 or more = stunned instead 3 points: confusion for 1d4 rounds on all enemies in 20-ft radius, DC 16 Will save = dazed for 1 round instead
NAME:________________________________
STATISTICS
DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 (+0) WIS 17 (+3) CHA 8 (-1) SKILLS First Aid +9
Languages English, German, French FEATS
DEFENSE
AC 17
Fortitude +5
GEAR M1903 Springfield (900 ft, 5 round clip) w/scope 6 clips Springfield ammo Colt M1911 (25-ft range, 7-round clip) 2 clips pistol ammo 4 hand grenades (10-ft radius, 5d6, Ref DC 15 half) Combat Knife Flack vest & camo suit (+4 AC) First Aid Kit Survival Kit (compass, fire starting gear, flashlight, etc.) 100-ft of rope OFFENSE
Base Attack +3
ABILITIES Improved Critical Springfield Scope Master When using a move action to aim with a scoped weapon, you may add your wisdom bonus to the attack roll instead of +1 Ranger Awareness You gain a +2 bonus on Perception checks and Initiative checks when outdoors
NAME:________________________________
STATISTICS
DEX 16 (+3) CON 13 (+1) INT 17 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) SKILLS Electronics +9
Languages English, German, Russian FEATS
DEFENSE
AC 15
Fortitude +4
GEAR M1 Carbine (200-ft range, 15-round clip) 4 clips carbine ammo Colt M1911 (25-ft range, 7-round clip) 2 clips pistol ammo 2 hand grenades (10-ft radius, 5d6, Ref DC 15 half) Combat Knife Flack jacket & camo suit (+2 AC) First Aid Kit Surgical Toolkit Adrenaline Boost
Dr. Maphesto's Miracle Serum heals 2d8+3 damage to a heavily wounded character, possibly upgrading them to lightly wounded, 2 doses
Base Attack +2
ABILITIES Patch 'em Up
Minor Surgery
NAME:________________________________
STATISTICS
DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 13 (+1) CHA 8 (-1) SKILLS Climb +9
Languages English FEATS
DEFENSE
AC 16
Fortitude +6
GEAR M1 Garand (200-ft range, 8-round clip) 4 clips rifle ammo Combat Knife M1928 Thompson Submachine Gun (60-ft. special range, 30-round clip) 6 clips submachine gun ammo Bazooka (200-ft range, full minute to reload) 3 bazooka shells Flack vest & camo suit (+4 AC) OFFENSE
Base Attack +3
ABILITIES M1928 Thompson
Recoil Compensation you get a +2 bonus on strength checks when firing your Thompson
NAME:________________________________
STATISTICS
DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 13 (+1) WIS 8 (-1) CHA 17 (+3) SKILLS Climb +5
Languages English, German FEATS
DEFENSE
AC 16
Fortitude +6
GEAR M1 Garand (200-ft range, 8-round clip) 6 clips rifle ammo Colt M1911 (25-ft range, 7-round clip) 2 clips pistol ammo 4 hand grenades (10-ft radius, 5d6, Ref DC 15 half) Combat Knife Flack vest & camo suit (+4 AC) Thermos of "Pick-me-up" (heals 1d8+3 damage to a lightly wounded character, 4 doses) 100 feet of rope w/climbing gear OFFENSE
Base Attack +3
ABILITIES Coordinate Fire
Inspirational Leader use 2 times
Hey Dorkis I'm glad you liked the game, I had a blast running it, and I'll probably try and run it again next year. I'll go ahead and post the pregens to this thread, but they'll be missing some of the formatting, if you want the original doc files, pass along your email address and I'll send em to you.
Hey Mearrin I was in the game last year (I just kinda dropped in) and I'd love to play again this year if there's still a spot open. I'm in or running events Friday afternoon and Saturday till 6, but I'm currently available Friday morning or Sunday, or later on Saturday night. Let me know.
Hey all, Sorry I haven't looked at this thread in awhile. As for time slots, my first choice would be Saturday afternoon, second choice would be Saturday morning. Let me know if there's any more info you need.
Title of the game: Risen Beneath the Ice Description of the game: February, 1941. The Axis war machine is on the march in Europe, and Japan and China are battling in the Far East. Meanwhile, US army intelligence intercepts a radio distress signal from a previously unknown secret Nazi base in Antarctica. Unwilling to risk war, yet unable to pass up the opportunity, president Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes a secret expedition to discover what the Nazis are doing. Awaiting them is a horror awakened after 60,000 years beneath the ice. Minium/Maximum # of players: 4-6
Session 4 is now up.
Hey everyone, I realize that this isn't exactly a campaign journal, but it's pretty close, as I think if you like reading about other people's RPG campaigns there's a chance you would be interested in this. Inspired by the opportunity presented by the podcast format, as well as by some truly great work from other podcasters out there, my friends and I have decided to record our play sessions and put them online in the form of a podcast for other people to follow along. The home of the podcast is located here and the RSS feed can be found here. Finally, if you want a direct link to the actual files, you can them at session 0 and session 1. The podcast is also available through the iTunes music store, search for Journey to Madness. I'll try and post here whenever I upload a new episode, and of course I'm interested in any feedback you guys might have. Enjoy the show!
After watching my last campaign nearly fall apart from the overuse of buff spells (and the resulting mess of multiple dispel magic spells) by the time the characters reached 11th level or so, I was forced to implement a system very similar to the one Jason posted on the first page (and I allowed 4 buffs instead of 3, and no bonuses from spells were allowed to stack with each other at all). This solution worked well enough that we were able to continue the campaign for awhile, at least until 16th level or so, but the first time someone cast a 9th-level spell (as it happened, it was an NPC that cast gate) that was the end of the campaign, as both myself and the players lost interest in a system that had become, essentially, who can get their uber spell off first. In general, I agree that a system of limited buffs can be very helpful in reducing both the tedium and time intensive nature of high-level D&D, but I was bothered by 2 things. First, that the solution was a very obvious band-aid to cover up a glaring flaw in the underlying magic system, and as a result the solution felt both artificial and incongruous. And second, I had to spend a lot of time adjudicating on the fly which effects counted as a "buff" and which did not. It also had some unintended side effects. The problem bothered me sufficiently that after my last campaign ended, I spent a great deal of time reinventing the entire magic system with the "buff problem" in mind before a started another campaign. So far, things have gone pretty smoothly, but the characters are still only level 4 or so, so it obviously hasn't really been tested yet.
Event modules are extremely difficult to do well, and Carnival was something of an experiment to see if we could pull it off and how much interest there was. Based on the response so far, it seems to have been a success.
There's some great suggestions on how to build the Derhii as a PC race in this thread.
5th level
According to the DMG (p 137) which was the original basis for our calculations (although it's been updated a few times since then) the population figure refers to the "Adult population. Depending on the dominant race of the community, the number of nonadults will range from 10% to 40% of this figure."
If there's one thing people continually misunderstand about the module line, this is it. Journey in this case does not refer to an actual journey, but more of a departure from the ordinary. We needed a title for those adventures that we wanted to set in strange an exotic places. And we couldn't use exotic, because E was taken by Event. Anyway, none of the journey modules are about actual journeys. The closest thing we have to that is W2: River into Darkness and W3: Flight of the Red Raven. Not to sidetrack this thread or anything. Your ideas about turing J3 into a campaign are pretty cool.
If, for some reason, we were to re-release the text of D0 as part of another product, we would endeavor to incorporate any errata to the adventure as part of that product. (Something like what happened with the SCAP book) But, barring that, it's unlikely we'll ever go back and fix it. As for the translations, I have no idea, I'm not involved with that process at all. But somehow I doubt it.
This is a topic that comes up quite a bit. There was some discussion of it already in this thread. The short answer is that it's unlikely we will do modules above about 14th level, for 2 reasons. First, it's difficult for us to do a complete high-level adventure in 32-pages. The length of the encounters coupled with the difficulty of finding an appropriate plot that can be told briefly means its challenging to pull off well. The second reason is that historically high-level modules sell worse that low- and mid- level modules. The only high-level modules that have been consistently popular have been the ones connected to adventure paths. The upcoming module The Demon Within, is about as high level as we are likely to get. If that module does really well, we might consider upping the number of high-level modules we do. But even then, its pretty unlikely we'll do anything higher than 14th-15th level
That's a good idea, and if poor Gary wasn't already so tied up with other (massive) projects, I'd talk to him about it. At the moment, we don't have quite enough modules to make it really useful, but it is absolutely something we'll think about doing somewhere down the road.
Another test!Hmmm. Not a very successful test I guess. Your crafty escape to another thread will not avail you. Your avatar will be consumed. It is inevitable. MUNCH!
Testing!Hmmm. OK, so it's not a reliable problem. My squishy tentacle avatar could totally eat your squishy tentacle avatar.
Hmm. The slam damage refers to its tentacle attack. It should really read "tentacle damage." And "tentacle attack" instead of "slam attack." In any case, the damage is 4d6+14
Yeah, it's effectively a CR 1 hazard (as you can probably guess by the EL given for the encounter). We should have included an Ad-hoc section specifically saying that though. Oh well.
As I'm sure Mary will attest, there's a big difference between an optimized 4th-level party and a non-optimized one. If your players are the type to get the most out of the rules, you should raise the challenge level some. If you want some ideas to make the undead tougher, check out the dread zombie and dread wight templates in the Advanced Bestiary. Having Patrissa keep her sorcerer levels is another good idea.
The shoggoth has a racial bonus on grapple checks. It is listed in the Improved Grab special ability description and included in the grapple modifier listed in the stat block.
While the shoggoth itself is not necessarily evil (being a nearly mindless predator, its hard to classify it as evil) the power that sent it to Golarion is most certainly evil. Attempting to manipulate the portion of its power contained within the shoggoth stone requires you to expose yourself somewhat to his evil, alien intelligence. That's why its a chaotic evil act. By using the artifact, you expose yourself to its taint, and its impossible to completely shield yourself. Attempting to control the shoggoth by means other than the artifact would not necessarily be an evil act, it would depend on what you were using it for.
Unfortunately, mythical monsters don't always fit snugly into the D&D ruleset. In this case, we felt that the overall monster was closer to an ooze than an aberration (possessing, as it does, the formless body and the engulf abilities), although you could make a convincing case for both. Besides, who says oozes can't have teeth?
This group can't cast freedom of movement until 10th level (when the bard can cast it 1/day). They can't cast death ward until 14th level (and that's if the paladin gets up to 18 wisdom...seems unlikely). Regardless of how much healing you have, the lack of those 2 spells could be a major problem.
I agree, shoggoths rule. <-------ftw
I don't disagree with you. The adventure as written is positively lethal for 1st-level characters. It would still probably be challenging for most 4th-level characters, as long as they weren't too optimized. It probably won't kill any of them though. If you want to make the haunts harder though, I'd aim for increasing the DCs for skill checks by 5, and for saving throws by 3 (that's about how much better people will be at 4th level). I'd double (or so) the amount of damage they do, either just straight up increasing the damage or by giving them some sort of lingering effect (posion, etc.)
Strength 14
RIP EGG
Ah doomsday My feeling is that yes, climate change is bad, and it might redraw the map and end the world order (such as it is), but it probably won't kill off humanity. Personally my two favorite scenarios are the Supernova Apocalypse and the Gray Goo Scenario
Blight, hands down. My druid has just attained 7th level. He can transform into thousands of different creatures, his animal companion is either a ferocious killing machine or an unhittable juggernaught. He can call down columns of fire from the sky to blast the perverters of nature. He can walk through a nest of assassin vines without fear of getting grappled. He can bring his companions back from the dead! Or...he can automatically kill any a single plant (of any size!). Hmm. But wait, I can use it to damage plant creatures! Oh but flame strike does just as much damage to multiple plant creatures. Yeah....
Personally I've never allowed karmic strike. Robilar's Gambit is ok though, by 12th-level, I'm fine with the fighter doing stuff like that. After all, look at what the wizard is doing!
Impartial Tribunal, Chase on Charred Ground
I agree with this interpretation.
In the monster format we actually use for our products, the name of the monster comes first, followed by a physical description of the monster, followed by its stat block, followed by its ecology and other information.
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