Kantrip's page

Years ago we're playing in Greyhawk and the party is hired to foil an assassination attempt on a visiting ambassador. He's put up in a mansion on the edge of town, guards put in place, and we're told we keep him safe or else.

We do all the information gathering and such and can't get a clue to when or who or how. So, in a flash of brilliance, we decide to lure the assassin out by hiring him to kill the "ambassador" ourselves. As someone points out, "Who would pass up the chance to get paid twice for the same job? It's fool proof."

We spread the word we're hiring someone to kill a "visitor" to the city, must be very skilled at his trade. Through our drop message system we get a bite, and pass on we want the ambassador killed and when and where he can be found. "We'll leave the door to his room unlocked."

Then we prepare the "ambassador's" room. We board up the window on the inside, move a cabinet in front of the window for good measure, station the guards away from that part of the mansion to guard the ambassador in his real room, and settle in to wait. Kind of smirking, too.

At midnight the door opens, someone slips in, and we spring the trap. We light up the room, slam the bar down on the door and turn to face the poor doomed assassin.

Imagine our joy to see a mind flayer standing there. And us all of level 5. Oh, and for some reason he has an imp, too.

Well, the battle was mostly a lot of screaming in panic, trying to tear the boards off the windows, trying to get past the mind flayer to the door, and shouting for the guards. And the mind flayer and his imp having the time of their lives.

Now whenever the group is stumped on how to deal with a problem, someone will often suggest, "We could hire an assassin to kill us."

I created a 3D map of the ruined cyclops city in the "Island of Empty Eyes" module, part 4 of the Skull and Shackles adventure path. I made the cyclops city map so my players would have a better visualization of how the ruins looked in relation to where they were.

As GM you might not want players to see all the city map from the beginning, but this was no problem with my group. The map doesn't show building interiors or underground areas.

I did this by pasting the GM's map into Sketchup, then drawing the buildings atop it to exactly match the scale and locations.

If you'd like to view it, it's on Youtube: Go to 3D Cyclops City Ruins.

I have several Pathfinder setting slide shows there, including 3D Kaer Maga, 3D The Black Keep from Shattered Star adventure path, and a History of Golarion slide.

I am currently running a campaign set in Kaer Maga, taking over from another GM who was running an excellent game set there before he moved away.

As players, we were always trying to get a handle on just what the city looked like. The maps available from Paizo are great, but it's hard to appreciate the unique nature of the city presented in 2D. As often as not, I didn't picture the multi-layered sections within the walls.

When I took over as GM I used Sketchup 8 and drew the city. For my players I load up Sketchup and can rotate around the city with the mouse to give them any angle I want.

I decided to post it on Youtube but the conversion to .avi possible with Sketchup isn't very good, so I made a slide show from shots I took of the 3D model I drew.

I posted the slide show on Youtube if anyone is interested:
Go to Kaer Maga Slide Show

(Or go to Youtube and do a search for Pathfinder Kaer Maga)

Let me know if this is helpful to your players.

Having played D&D almost since the beginning (and our group calls PF D&D still) I've had many enjoyable characters. But most recently, and among my all time favorite, was my gnome druid, Krundalbar Glimberek. I was able to totally immerse myself in the eccentric nature of gnomes, which borders on insanity by the standards of other races.

He rode a giant toad (and had a miniature to match) which he named Hoppiton Webfoot III (since it was the third animal companion he tried to get. The first two were giant frogs and as he explained, one tried to eat him and one tried to drown him... and then eat him.) The gnome would never walk in front of the toad, unless out of reach of his tongue, explaining, "When you're only three feet tall, you can't be too trusting."

The party quickly renamed the toad "Hoppy" and he became a popular member of the party. When Krundalbar would do something really weird, a player would say, "I bet Hoppy is rolling his eyes and shaking his head."

When the adventure path took us on a long overland journey and I suggested leaving Hoppy behind, the party all chipped in and bought a wagon and insisted Hoppy come along.

He always introduced himself with,"I'm Krundalbar Glimberek, of the Sanos Forest Glimbereks."

He wore boots with the toes cut out, "Have you ever been walking along and started to wonder if you still had all your toes? Then you have to sit down, pull off your boots, and count them, or else the doubt will drive you crazy. This way, I can just glance down and save time."

He explained how his father encouraged him to become an adventurer, "My father said, 'Krunbalbar, you should get out and see the world. And you should get out now.'"

He was taught the secrets of druidism by Arkman Elmspirit, a kind and gentle fellow who’s only real drawback was that he was a werewolf. ("It were best to be high in a tree when the moon was full, if you catch my drift. Otherwise, old Arkman was a cheerful old fellow.")

He encountered his first brothel, which he mistook for a tapestry shop, "Everything was only 5 gold, the lady told me. So I said, 'I'll take that tapestry'. The ladies all thought that was funny, for some reason. Anyway, I didn't get my tapestry but I'm going back tomorrow."

Afterwards, he would divide his share of all loot into stacks of 5 gold. Eventually he convinced the party (even the priest) to invest in an upscale "Tapestry Shop", and would hang posters throughout Varisia "Visit Krundalbar's Tapestry Shop, in beautiful Magnimar!" (When the Magnimar book came out, Greg, owner of Comics Emporium, said the first thing the players asked was, "Does it have Krundalbar's Tapestry Shop?")

He also had a caparison made for Hoppy that advertised his shop.

For a time he wore a hollowed out watermelon for a helmet.

He collected buttons and had a vest with four rows of buttons, no two alike. A typical party looting after a battle would go:

Wizard: I cast detect magic on the bodies.

Barbarian: I search them for gold.

Krundalbar: Do they have any buttons?

He bought and took along on adventures anything with moving parts: folding chair, hinged box, astrolabe. He would assemble the astrolabe, take a reading, and then, with all seriousness, declare the party should continue to follow the trail.

His advice on fighting undead was, "First you stake them to the ground, then you fill their mouth with waffles. I read it in a book."

He only learned one phrase in dwarven, "Did you kill those people?" and used it as his opening introduction to every dwarf the party encountered. Even now in another campaign when the GM says something is written or said in dwarven, the players respond, "Did you kill those people?"

The party soon learned not to have him change to an animal and go for help or deliver a message. (He spent three days "hanging out" with the bats in Magnimar when he was supposed to be taking an important message to an npc)

When the party encountered giant tracks, he explained how to tell giants by type, "If they live in the hills, they're hill giants. If they live in the forest they're forest giants. And if they're on fire, they're fire giants. I've never seen a cloud giant, but one time I saw a cloud shaped like a dog. It was probably an omen but I couldn't figure it out."

He was my character though the Rise of the Rune Lords adventure path and I was able to play him so over-the-top that I might never be able to play another gnome just because I'd find myself cloning Krundalbar.

Not the same, but this reminds me of something that happened when I was playing WOW. I had a female night elf character and fell in with another player doing some quests one night. After awhile he made some comment about my character being "hot" and I said that's why I like to play female night elves. Then it went like this:

Him: You're not really a girl?
Me: Nope.
Him: Oh, I thought you were.
Me: Brace yourself... I'm not really an elf, either.

I had a player who managed to get killed three times in four sessions by reckless play in what was not a character killing campaign. After the third death I wrote this up and presented it to him at the next session, printed out in fantasy font.

Mutual of Greyhawk
Proudly Serving the Prime Material Plane for Over 1000 Years

Dear Sir:
We regret to inform you that your policy with Mutual of Greyhawk has been canceled. We assure you we did not make this decision lightly, but only after casting several divination spells.

Three untimely deaths in such a short period of time, four adventure "sessions", would have been excessive during the Greyhawk War, much less while doing low to mid-level adventuring.

We paid off your fist claim, which I believe was "Death by Hill Giant Bashing", even though entering an obviously occupied hill giant cave to "do a little looting" is the reason your third level rogue never made fourth level.

We questioned "Death by Falling in Lava" because you do not technically carry lava insurance and at least two other party members warned your new rogue not to try to flank the owlbear by getting on the cliff edge overlooking the lava.
However, as we were required to settle a claim on a magic dagger from the same incident, we felt obligated to settle with you as well. (Letting you "borrow" a +2 dagger from undivided treasure shows bad judgment on the part of your fellow party members, which is why the replacement was downgraded to +1)

We only agreed not to drop you after the second instance because you elected to try a druid rather than another rogue. (As the druid survived two sessions, there was a glimmer of hope you might actually take part in a "treasure split" and therefore keep your policy up-to-date.)

However, if you will look over your policy again, which is only a Mid-Level Adventurer Term Policy, you will see that "Death by Being Eaten by Giant Sea Snake While in Seal Form" is neither covered nor implied. When the real seals are bolting onto the shore, the water is churning and red with blood, and the rest of your party is shouting "Don’t go in the water!" in common, elven, dwarven and pig-Latin, we can’t understand how you thought it was a good idea.

We considered continuing your coverage when you wanted to start a fourth character who begins as a stable hand in a very peaceful small village but as soon as someone at the meeting said "pitchfork" that option was rejecting unanimously.

We hope you will find suitable coverage elsewhere, and suggest you take out a low coast liability policy just in case you get someone else killed next time.

Sincerely,
Urshlan T. Yarl, Claim Adjuster.

Many years back I'm DM'ing a game and the party is on a ship far out in uncharted oceans seeking a fabled island. As an encounter, a massive whale attacks the ship and starts ramming into it. (Think Moby Dick).

The always overconfident fighter announces he's drinking a potion of water breathing and jumping overboard while the rest of the party is discussing what to do about the situation. The whale swallows him and starts diving to the bottom of the ocean.

Fighter: I'll cut my way out. Shouldn't take more than a minute.
DM: You'll be a thousand feet under water by then.
Fighter: I have water breathing.
DM: You'll also have incredible water pressure crushing you.
Wizard: I think I can do something...
Fighter: Don't need help. I've got this. I've got one charge left on my wish ring.
Wizard: Be careful how you word...
Fighter: Yeah, yeah, I know that... So the whale is taking us to the bottom? Ha! I'm using my last wish. I wish we were on the ship!
Other players: NO!
DM: OK, you're back on the ship. You and the whale.
Fighter: What? I didn't wish for the whale... oh, I meant, "I wish I was back on the ship! Just me, not the whale!" Yeah, that's what I wish.
Other players: You said "we". Nobody else was in the water, just you and that whale.
DM: The wish has already been granted. The whale thrashes about (dice rolls), the main mast snaps... the sails collapse, the whale is tangled in the lines and is wrecking your ship. You've got a 100 foot whale atop an 80 foot ship! The crew is in a panic, the captain is screaming for someone to do something! The ship is in danger of capsizing! And you're still inside the whale.
Wizard: I'm going to cast...
Fighter: Save your spells for a serious problem. I start hacking my way out. See how he likes that!
DM: Oh, he doesn't like it at all...

After some fun, the party finds itself, along with the surviving crew members, sitting on a small reef with nothing but ocean in every direction, trying to gather enough from the debris of the ship to make a raft.

Wizard (Looking at fighter): I really, really wish I had a wish ring. I know what I'd wish for...

You could have the prison divided into sections, each built to contain and neutralize a specific type.
For example:

The Wet Wing: a section where it's always damp, to contain fire based creatures, with guards immune to fire

The Silent Corridor: permanent silence spells to contain creatures with sonic attacks, with guards who are deaf.

The Dark Cells: section always in darkness to contain creatures with gaze attacks, like the medusa, with blind guards who have blindsight.
Or the guards are creatures with gaze attacks and it's only the darkness protecting the prisoners.

The Silver Cells: Built to hold lycanthropes and devils, guards armed with silver weapons.

For more normal prisoners such as humans, special security sections:

The Wheel: A circular section with a slowly revolving inner wall containing a single opening that only lines up with each cell once per 24 hours, for maybe an hour each time. This gives time to feed the prisoner, or remove them, but could force the players to wait a long time for the cell they want to come into play.

The Aquatics: A section completely under water, with gillmen guards and/or sharks. The cells are elevated and contain air but only reachable through the water filled passages.

The Furnace: Corridor with permanent walls of fire on each side, heat side inward, with the door-less cells on the cool side. Guards are salamanders. Prisoners are brought in or out by means of energy resistance rings, fire.

I began playing D&D in 1976. My group and I changed to every new addition, upgrading our characters to the new rules and moving right along. We loved the game. And we were loyal to the game, and felt it was loyal to us.

Then came a total change in D&D. Not only was 4th not the same game, but there was a feeling of being just the next guy in line to give money to an unappreciative sales clerk who wouldn't even make eye contact.

Along came Pathfinder and again there was that feel of community, of a game made and sold by people who loved the game themselves. The people of Paizo have treated players with the respect we once had from D&D. When I stand in that imaginary line to buy my Pathfinder product, the sales clerk says, "Hey, did you see the cool artwork on page 33? What do you think of the new feats in chapter five?"

Paizo makes eye contact, the way D&D once did. Why would I consider abandoning that just because the rude sales clerk now wants my input?

Sorry, WOTC, you got my input when I got out of the D&D line and moved to the Pathfinder line.

He's cheating the rest of the party members as well as the other players; he's stealing resources from the party and some of the enjoyment from the players. Pathfinder and D&D are not competitive games, they are cooperative games.

If the rogue player wants to role play his character as a pick pocket or shop lifter, let him do it against the NPCs, who after all didn't invest time and money to playing the game and won't resent him for it outside the game.

As a DM, I've always been against anything that causes people to leave the table with hard feeling towards a fellow gamer. A player in my game stole a ring from treasure and more than a decade later other players in the group still remember it. They aren't resentful of his rogue, they're resentful of the player himself because they trusted him. This game requires trust around the table. You can't see everyone's dice rolls, so you trust them to have actually rolled a "hit" when they say they did, to erase the gold off their sheet when the party all chips in to buy potions, and to see that everyone gets an equal share of the rewards for the risks they took as a party.

Put another way, I can talk to non-gamers who are nonetheless pop-culture savvy, point to Sir Lancelot, and say, "That there is a Paladin. He's real good and rides a horse and swings a sword and stuff." Nods.

Actually, Lancelot wasn't a paladin. His son, Sir Galahad, was the paladin. And for a great read on the Arthurian stories with some real grit to it read "Parsival or a Knight's Tale" by Richard Monaco.

Parsival and Galahad are two differing versions of a paladin to use as examples for RPG play; Galahad is pure by choice and Parsival by naivete.

An additional point, as all these real world figures are given for ancient times on Earth; people of those times didn't know those figures. The Roman Empire did a Census, and perhaps the Chinese, but most nations probably never had anywhere near the information on their populations that we have.

That lack of hard numbers allowed for the belief in many mythical lands and lost continents. It encouraged a belief that elves lived in the deeper forests or trolls underground or dragons in the mountains. In Golarion, they do!

Of course, taxes are collected and borders more or less defined, so there is at least an estimate of populations within the civilized regions. But how accurate are those tax figures and how recognizable those borders?

I personally like a fantasy world where there are vast areas of dangerous and unexplored regions even within great nations, where nobody can say with certainty how many people there are in the world, much less elves and dwarves, and where far off lands are just "that way, somewhere."

Or as Lord Dunsany once said, the most intriguing phrase in the English language is "Over the hills and far away".

We take max at first level and top half of die on following levels. If you roll a 1-4 on a d8, re-roll till you get 5-8. It makes for higher HP totals as well as leveling out the HP between classes, so that a wizard, for example, is percentage-wise where he should be compared to the fighter.

The other gods took him snipe hunting.

He's not dead at all; but somewhere, on another plane, he's sitting alone in a dark woods with a burlap sack, waiting on Sarenrae, Desna, Gorum, Erastil and all the rest to stir up a snipe and run it his way.

Behind the screen. You take away some of the mystery when everything is right out on the table. Also, experienced players can learn a lot of information they shouldn't know if you roll everything in the open.

We had a GM/DM who didn't use the screen. His combats went like this:

GM: (Open roll a 16 on D20) What's your AC?
Fighter: 22
GM: Missed you.
Players look at each other, do some quick math, and realize the monster only has at best +5 to hit.

Everyone loses any feeling that this encounter is a challenge. Fighter power attacks rest of fight. Rogue doesn't bother to try to tumble to get a flank. Wizard doesn't cast anything because it's a pushover fight.
Priest gets up to get a snack.

Wizard: I cast "flaming sphere" where the guard captain is. Reflex DC 15.
GM: (Open rolls a 3) He dodges it.
Wizard: He has a +12 reflex? OK, next round I move it to one of the other guards. I'm not gonna waste it trying to hit someone with a +12 or better reflex.

Finally the players asked the GM to start using the screen because the fights were boring when it was easy to figure out just how much or how little a challenge the encounters were.

The screen also allows fudging, which should be in every GM's arsenal.

The GM is rolling more dice per encounter than any single player, and by the odds going to roll criticals more often. And usually against the same 2-3 front line characters. On a hot dice night, the GM could kill a character who wasn't played badly.
Or the character falls in a pit and the GM rolls a Yatzee; all 6's. And what should have been an injured character requiring the priest to expend some resources becomes a dead character.

In either example you have a player who sits out of the game at least the rest of the evening.

Lastly, it takes a lot away from the game to roll in the open, IMHO. I'd rather hear, "The battle axe swishes by your head, barely missing you." instead of see the GM roll a "5" and say, "He missed."

I was at Coastcon, in Biloxi, back in the '90s and Elmore had a table in the dealer's room. He used to be a regular at the con and I always made a point to spend some time talking with him. At this con I was sitting at his table with him and his wife. She decided to go to the mall for a little while.

Larry had art portfolios of his work he was autographing to sell, and also the D&D cards with his work on them. His wife reminded him the items were to sell for more than retail because they were autographed. I think they had a sign on the table with the prices.

During the time she was gone he sold a few of the art packs, but at the regular retail price. He didn't charge anything for the cards when he autographed them. One kid even brought a Jeff Easley card for an autograph and Elmore pointed out that it wasn't his art work and signed one of his cards and gave it to him.

We spent a couple hours discussing art, D&D, Snarfquest, TSR, etc. He was really cool with everyone, especially the kids. He probably signed over 100 autographs on everything from the art packs to D&D books to cards to Dragon magazines. All free.

When his wife returned, she looked in the money box and said something like, "I knew I should have stayed at the table. This is about what was in there when I left."

Larry said, "It's been a slow day, hon."

Great guy.

I owned a hobby store at the time (I actually opened it because of my interest in D&D). I recall a few church ladies stopping in to complain about it.

My most vivid memory, though, was a preacher who came by (possibly from the same church) to inquire on what the game was really about. I told him there was a group playing that evening and invited him to come watch. The D&D groups played in the back of the store but it wasn't closed off to other customers and the players were used to people hanging around watching.

About an hour into the session the preacher arrived and asked if it was alright for him to watch. Naturally I told him to go on back there. He spent about an hour sitting to the side watching the game, then came back up to the counter. I asked him what he thought, did it look like kids involved in Satanism?
He said, "It looks like people having fun playing a game with dice. Nobody even pretended to actually cast a spell, they just rolled dice, added them up, and announced the total. One of them even asked if I wanted to play."

I never got another visit from church members to complain about the game, and suspect the preacher might have had a rational talk with the members who believed the Chick Track trash.