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Well, I guess I was hoping by calling them a specific KIND of radish, and thus implying that those radishes are rare, that it would have been a bit more high-adventure. I'm playing up the fact that they are rare and expensive, like saffron (a part of a flower that can be worth more than its weight in gold).
We use a little magnetic whiteboard with magnets. The magnets have strips of whiteboard glued to them, upon which we write the characters names. We have some others with Allies, Opponent, Enemy, etc permanently marked on them. We don't mark the initiative number, just place the markers in order. When someone delays, they delay until before or after another, there is no reason to remember the original initiative number after the board is set-up. As the character are on magnets, their marker just slides into place. Quick and easy. Everyone can see who is next, and a player works the board, freeing the DM up for everything else. It is the same as the combat tracker, but we made our own.
I like traits, but I think they work better as being something detailed in the adventure paths or Pathfinder specific sourcebooks, rather than in the core RPG book. There should be general traits, racial traits, and faith traits in the core RPG book, and then campaign specific traits detailed in the adventure paths. I am more in favor of traits at first level and leave the feats as they are.
Whatever you do, do not use dry erase markers on this! I picked up the wrong marker by accident and now mine has a huge ugly green boat drawn on the square side. My friends laugh at me each time I use it. Dry erase markers do not come off by any solvent I could get my hands on commerically. But I really loved it until I ruined it. Use a wet-erase marker over the top of the dry erase, then erase. If there is still a trace of the dry erase marker, just repeat. The sooner you do this the better. I had a player use a blue dry erase marker on my mat, and this trick worked great. There is not any sign of the dry erase remaining.
I am one of those who really liked the saga skill method. Mind you that is the only thing I liked from saga. My group used it for a campaign and it worked great. The 15th level wizard who rode the same horse everywhere actually became a decent rider by the end of her career, instead of not knowing how to ride at all after all that time on horseback. I understand your concern though. If you wanted a character with a little bit of skill in this and little in that, especially trained only skills, there wasn't really a way to do that. Even with that downside, I still prefer it. Now for PF skills, the method outlined is just a shorthand method of the current 3.5 skill system, with the added trained skills at even levels. Still digesting it and undecided about it...
I knew my players would never go along with Kaurophon as written, so I changed the Starry Mirror to dump the players out onto Occipitus instead of into the ancient vault. In addition, the Alek on the other end wasn't Alek, but rather was Kaurophon himself. The players realized that Alek wasn't acting exactly normal during the trip through Occipitus. I had used Alek quite a bit previously so this NPC was familiar to the PC's already.
I would have to disagree for the simple reason that Saltmarsh was never much more than a name and a brief description. Hommlet was described, mapped, keyed, populated, and brought to life in T1. It actually took up more space than the adventure did.
I built my own combat pad back when 3.5 debuted. It is simply a dry erase/magnet board, the magnets I built from sheet styrene and magnets, and it looks very similar to the actual combat pad (though when I built it I had not yet seen the commercial pad). It cost about $12 - $15 all told, so the combat pad is indeed a good deal. When a character delays or readies, it is really quick to scoot their magnet over. Everyone can see the board, so everyone knows when their turn is and how soon it is coming up. It makes combat quicker and initiative is a breeze. One of the players runs the board, so that is one less thing for the me (the DM) to keep track of. I'm a fan...
I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled about the announcement of the release of 4th edition. I still have too many 3.5 edition campaigns that I want to run! That being said, every edition of the game has been better then the previous version (in my opinion). If they continue the trend, then 4th will be the best yet.
Wow, thanks for all the suggestions. I checked out all the various suggestions. Eyebite, I think the Spiderwick Chronicles look great, but are just a bit beyond her fluency yet. I will keep these in mind for when she is ready. Rambling Scribe, the Rainbow Magic series looks perfect. They might be a touch on the easy side, but that isn't an issue. She already loves faeries and princesses, so these will go over very well. I checked my my library, and it has a host of these, so even better! The Franny K. Stein books also look perfect. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain novels are outside her ability, but I've been looking for a bit more advanced books to read to her every night, and these look like they might entertain me as well. kessukoofah, checking my library, they have a large number of Animorph books available, but little information about them. I'll have to take a walk down there and check them out, thanks for the suggestion. Thoth-Amon, Tunnels looks good, but again I think just a touch advanced. I'll keep this one for the future as well. DMFTodd, my daughter chews through Magic Treehouse like candy. The Deltora Quest books look excellent, we will have to get one from the library to see if she can handle it. Where were all these great children's fantasy books when I was a lad? Locke1520, she loves Junie B. Jones, and avidly reads every one she can get. Jian Le, The Circle of Magic Quartet is likely beyond her yet, but I'll keep these in mind, same with Lilith's suggestion Dealing with Dragons series. Thanks all for the suggestions! My daughter already has an insatiable love of reading, and I'd love to see that include fantasy and sci-fi. It looks likes there is so much more available these days. Thanks again all...
There are some in newer Dungeons as well and should still have back issues available... IssueNumYearVal AdventureName
I just received an order from Paizo that had a 30 page catalog ("Spring Catalog 2007") thrown in with my order. I liked the catalog. Someone had also dropped an item card booster in the order as well, but I ain't sending it back! :)
Booo! Hissss! I actually have every issue of Dungeon, and probably have enough adventures that I have not used yet to still keep me going for another 5 years or so, but this still is massively disappointing. I look forward to getting my magazines in the mail every month, and I will miss them terribly. While Pathfinder looks great, the price may keep me from getting it.... ...sigh...
Yes it does. From the 3.5 FAQ: Does the bonus from Melee Weapon Mastery (Player’s
1 up for GH, and 1 for Birthright...!
I like the tactics sections that Dungeon magazine includes with encounters and thought that would be a great enhancement to the stat blocks. I did notice the author comments but thought that was for something else. Great site...!
The database is currently online, though not available to the public. I am in the process of making it available, hopefully by the end of this week it will be at a point where it is usable. I like the NPC stat block DB you put together, very excellent! A tactics section would be a nice bonus.
Sure, here is every adventure marked as planar ( I added The Jackel's Redemption from 95 as well). IssueNum MonthName YearVal AdventureName AdventureLen LevelLow LevelHigh StartPage PageCount AdventureLocalDesc SystemAbbrev CategoryName CampaignName
Here is what I have listed. The filter criteria was 3.0 or 3.5 and locale="Planar". I do have every adventure and every issue of Dungeon in my db, but there may be some missing if they were not flagged as Planar. IssueNum MonthName YearVal AdventureName AdventureLen LevelLow LevelHigh CampaignID SeriesID StartPage EditorID PageCount CoverArtistID AdventureLocalDesc SystemAbbrev CategoryName CampaignName
The cost was 10,000 gp. Pricey, but cheaper then a Helm of Underwater Action. I'd recommend getting a copy of the issue so you can read the full description. Here is a list of every underwater adventure: AdventureName LevelLow LevelHigh CampaignID SeriesID IssueNum YearVal MonthName EditorID PageCount CoverArtistID AdventureLocalDesc SystemAbbrev CampaignName
We just started "Secrets of the Soul Pillars" and I have to say, the opening encounter was brutal on my party. We just finished Secrets of the Soul Pillars, and the assassin encounter was the most brutal yet. The encounter was very similar to the what you described. The group was enjoying a celebratory lunch at the Tipped Tankard. The assassins entered, the sorcerer opened with Cone of Cold, covering the entire party and killing six other bystanders. The half-orc charged the still sitting cleric and with a powerful blow and sneak attack killed him outright. The female closed with the wizard and took him down to the negatives. The parties heavy hitters moved in and made short work of the assassins, though the sorcerer escaped. The following assault on Ike Iverson went the other way.
It was Dungeon #77, Nov/Dec 1999. "To Walk beneath the Waves," by W. Jason Peck. Levels 3-5. Looking in the issue the device was called Drawmij's Undersea Apparatus. It provided 24 hours of underwater breathing with no AC benefit, and in fact could not be worn over armor heavier than chain. No movement penalties or hindrances.
My PC's also torched the Lucky Monkey, though it wasn't intentional. I saved the plotline by having the inn catch slowly. The PC's then fought through a burning building with smoke providing concealment for everyone. The stone cellar was mostly protected from the flames and heat. It turned out to be an exciting session.
I've only done a few models so far, but the players loved them. Mine were straight forward. The first prop I created was a battlemap for the umber hulk encounter. I enlarged the map to 1" squares and printed it out using a large format color printer. The second model I created was for the Kuo-toa shrine. I enlarged the maps to 1" squares, printed them out, and glued them to stiff cardboard and then assembled them into sections. The problem that I ran into with this model is the characters all ran under the platform and it was hard to move the miniatures. If the the levels would have been a bit further apart it would have been better. I also created a battlemap for the tax riot scene using the same method.
I stuck with my opinion and he made the item, but it took such a huge amount of downtime that it cost them some advantages in the story line since they were busy for so long making items. You calculated the caster level correctly. The caster level requirement is 3X the enhancement bonus, or the minimum caster level of the special ability, whichever is higher. See page 286 of the DMG (3.5). If you check wizards site, under rules of the game, Making Magic Items, Part 4, They give a specific example. This snipit is from that article:
I could not agree with this more. Not having seen the Green Ronin product, I was hoping it would be similar to how the old 2E Book of Priestcraft detailed each faith for the best setting ever produced, Birthright.
That's the point here, people - if want something to be better, give suggestions on how you think it could be better. Don't just say "it sucks" and be done with it. There's nothing useful in being negative. The original poster did not just drop a "suck" and leave it at that, he indicated what he did not like about each set of maps, what maps he liked, etc. Perhaps the title of the post could have been a little less harsh, but the post itself was fine. As for Kyle's reply, his reaction went overboard. If you are going to produce work for publication, no matter how incredible of a job you do, there will always be those who hate it, and will say so. If you don't not have a thick enough skin to take the criticism, then don't publish. Learn what you can from the feedback. Try to handle criticism more like a professional next time. Back to the topic at hand. The maps for Shut-In could have been better. The problems I had with them wer that they were too dark. The background design for the maps on the right was cluttered and distracting. I really disliked the design used for the stairs. It looks odd and where you have two sets of stairs near each other it gets confusing. What I did like about the maps was the inclusion of furnishings, rugs, the little detail items. The background of the main floor was nice.
We are one session into Life's Bizarre, playing from the magazines. Kynan O'Breck - Dwarf wizard (evoker)
All dwarves, my group does this kind of thing all the time. It does make the group origins quite easy though.
My first character was a 1st edition ranger named Justinian. This was back in late 1979 and I was 10 years old. The 2d8 hit die at 1st level, the druid and magic-user spells, tracking, and the damage bonus to a considerable list of monsters were all draws, but it was the list of really neat special followers in the DMG that clinched it for me. Justinian pulled Wave from White Plume Mountain and also recovered on seperate occassions a ring of elemental command (water) and a DM designed amulet with additional water powers. The DM ruled that this triplet together conferred additional powers when all worn together. A triplet existed for each of the elements, though this water set was the only one the group had. Ah, memories...
Issue #306 from 2003.
In addition it makes the events in the story more personal. The PC's are more motivated and have more at stake. I had my PC's start out as Citizens of Cauldron. They were so incensed by the abduction of children from the Orphanage that they started investigating the crime before ever even meeting a cleric of Cuthbert. |
