Logan1138's page

Logan1138 wrote:

Oh man, this is a classic AD&D adventure! One of my personal favorites along with Against the Cult of the Reptile God and White Plume Mountain.

I have Savage Worlds Deluxe which I believe they are now calling the Explorer's edition. Are there any significant differences in the system that would justify my purchasing the new (unfinished) Adventure edition or would I be okay just going with what I already have?

Savage Worlds Deluxe should be fine. There are a few minor differences when it comes to character creation, but those mostly have to do with the skills being reshuffled, and can easily be explained.

You state that the module is one of your favorites. Does that mean you've played it before?

Yes, I played it when it first came out in the 80's, so it's been 30+ years. I still remember the general theme of the adventure but not much of the nitty-gritty details.

Oh man, this is a classic AD&D adventure! One of my personal favorites along with Against the Cult of the Reptile God and White Plume Mountain.

I have Savage Worlds Deluxe which I believe they are now calling the Explorer's edition. Are there any significant differences in the system that would justify my purchasing the new (unfinished) Adventure edition or would I be okay just going with what I already have?

Rappan Athuk + 5E == WIN!

I have been dying to play Rappan Athuk but I have only seen it offered using Pathfinder which is a great system that I do not happen to play.

So how's it going?

Redac, you're still going through with an archaeology grad student?

Logan1138, what ideas are you pursuing?

I will not be submitting an application for this game after all. Good luck with the game everyone!

Logan1138 wrote:

Dreaming Warforged, I wanted to make a few minor alterations to my character as a result of my growing knowledge about Eberron and Sharn (I purchased the 3.5 Campaign Setting and the Sharn, City of Towers pdfs yesterday and found some things that I think might work a little better for the character).

The substance of the character will remain the same, Gnome from Zilago working for the Trust, but I want to change his background to House Agent (Sivis but not drangonmarked) and rejigger the Ally, Contact, Rival selections somewhat.

If that is NOT okay, please let me know.

That sounds good. Only thing is: at your level, all of you are not agents per se, more like wannabes or resources. So you might think you work for the Trust, but the Trust might not see it that way, at least until you prove yourself. I hope that's ok.

No, that is what I figured. He is just a low-level desk agent at this point. I was going to have him working for House Sivis as a non-dragonmarked house agent doing scribe duty but "asked"(read threatened) by the Trust to report any compromising documents he might come across.

Dreaming Warforged, I wanted to make a few minor alterations to my character as a result of my growing knowledge about Eberron and Sharn (I purchased the 3.5 Campaign Setting and the Sharn, City of Towers pdfs yesterday and found some things that I think might work a little better for the character).

The substance of the character will remain the same, Gnome from Zilago working for the Trust, but I want to change his background to House Agent (Sivis but not drangonmarked) and rejigger the Ally, Contact, Rival selections somewhat.

If that is NOT okay, please let me know.

Dreaming Warforged wrote:

Ok, regarding money, I should have been clearer. You don't need a trickle of money, but an important payment, something between 50 and 200 gp.

[dice=Stitch Reason]1d10 You gambled with the wrong crowd. Perhaps it was a one-time error, perhaps the sign of a bigger gambling problem, but you got a first visit and the message is clear: Pay, or pay.

Oh man, that is the BEST possible result. I definitely want to expand on the idea of Stitch getting naively involved in gambling, not realizing how serious people take it, and probably doing a lot of card counting that pisses people off and make them think Stitch is cheating. Probably doesn't understand debt/tabs/etc. very well either. I love the idea of Stitch being deeply in debt for gambling.

Well, now we have our connection, Stitch!

In my application submission, I indicated that Rory is an inveterate gambler and it would probably get him into trouble at some point.

I was going to suggest that I got cleaned out in a card game as the reason for my needing immediate funds and voila! Stitch was at that table as well. I think it would be kind of amusing if the person we lost to erroneously suspected that I was in on your card counting scheme, even though I was merely scratching my nose because it itched, not because I was passing signs to Stitch.

Regarding connections, I had envisioned Rory as a fairly recent arrival in Sharn with his only connection that required any time in the city being that of Max Murlock (which I should reassign as a contact rather than an ally based on DW's post), thus I didn't expect to have any strong connections to other PC's at this point.

However, I will look over the other players' recruitment submissions to see what might work.

Survey says!

The only supplement out of that entire list that I have read anything from is the Lost Mines of Phandelver from the Starter Set but I have not actually played any of it and I last read it about 3 years ago so my memory of the information is pretty weak.

I only have a passing familiarity with WotC 5E stuff and know nothing about any of the other material.

I could definitely see Out of the Abyss material being logically included with the trapped baddies in the Dragon Below. Curse of Strahd would be cool if incorporated into the Mournland.

For what it's worth, I've been working on basically the same character concept and I just used the Archaeologist occupation. I think there is a Student occupation, though.

Of course, if someone else is submitting basically the same build, I might need to work on another one.

Please continue with your idea, I was only speculating about a concept. If I do submit a character, I'll just go with something else. Not a problem.

Lorekeeper, I am thinking about submitting an archaeology student who has finished his undergrad and is currently working on his doctorate at Miskatonic U.

Would I use the Professor occupation or is there an occupation specifically designed for Students in the complete rule set?

DW: The main draw for me to this campaign was precisely that you were going to "do stuff" to our characters about which we knew nothing. I was really excited when I read that part of your recruitment pitch as I love to be surprised by new events in the game.

So, no holds barred, amigo.

Third and final submission:

Logan1138 wrote:

Dreaming Warforged: I am thinking of creating a warforged Artificer (Gunsmith subclass) but the option presented in Unearthed Arcana at the Wizards site seems horribly overpowered. Would you be open to my submitting this concept with the understanding that, if this character was selected for your campaign, we would work together to "nerf" the abilities down to a more reasonable level in keeping with the rest of the party?

That would be fine. Note however that there are no guns in Eberron. I'm not sure where UA got that from, but it wouldn't work in the case of this campaign.

Interesting.

I am completely new to Eberron and I am surprised that with flying ships and trains that their are no firearms. That shouldn't be a problem though as I could just go with the other subclass of the Artificer which is an alchemist. It too is overpowered, though, and will need to be toned down.

Here is my submission for that character...

The Strange:

Dreaming Warforged: I am thinking of creating a warforged Artificer (Gunsmith subclass) but the option presented in Unearthed Arcana at the Wizards site seems horribly overpowered. Would you be open to my submitting this concept with the understanding that, if this character was selected for your campaign, we would work together to "nerf" the abilities down to a more reasonable level in keeping with the rest of the party?

Hi Grimmy!

Good to see you back in the DM saddle.

I have to ask: What the heck are you doing in India?!?

I'm not signing up for your (extremely) ambitious project but I just wanted to give you a virtual thumbs up for your courage.

Good luck!

I thought the adventure also sounded a bit like X1: The Isle of Dread with its emphasis on exploration of a largely unknown island.

Wow, I never knew that 5E core books had not been published in other languages. I know WotC is following a slow-release paradigm but leaving millions of potential players (and their wallets) around the world without books in their native tongue seems pretty short sighted.

Good on Gale Force Nine for rectifying this issue.

I would probably require a caster to use a Feat (let's call it Expanded Concentration or something similar) to add a second Concentration spell that he/she could keep up. Want to be able to maintain three Concentration spells? Take a second helping of Expanded Concentration. This would require a hard choice on the part of the player as to whether or not it was really worth it to have extra Concentration spells going.

Hmmm...have to think about this one. I've got the DCC rule book but haven't had a chance to play the game yet. The slightly gonzo style is definitely appealing.

Point of order: Boo was a miniature giant space hamster, not a mouse.

Baldur's Gate was the game that reignited my interest in D&D after having been away from the game for several years. Great, great game. BG2 was even better.

My thinking right now is to run the full series since I, at least, am completely new to the classic modules. It's pretty much the most infamous chain of modules and are meant to played serially anyways.

We can make adjustments on the fly, but I'm thinking starting at level 3 with T1: The Village of Hommlet.

Just wanted to offer an opinion from an old-school vet (began playing D&D in 1981), Temple of Elemental evil is a mini-campaign all its own. You would not play the Slave Lord modules (A1-4) after completing ToEE because your characters would be too high in level, probably about level 11-12 and A1-A4 is meant for PC's from 4-8 level IIRC.

I look forward to seeing this game take off as I intend to read along for some good old nostalgia.

Between three different cards, the Haunts are referred to as being:

"In front of you"
"In front of all players"
"In front of characters"
"Next to your character card"

More seriously though, assuming these are all the same place, it's still not clear to me how the scenario power interacts with the text on the Haunts themselves. Do you follow the scenario instructions before, after or instead of following the Haunt text?

I think the right interpretation is this:
1. First you encounter the Haunt, which means putting it next to your character card. This is because you should "finish one thing before you start another", so the encounter happens before the "when you encounter"

2. Then you should attempt to close the location. This is because the closing the location text on the Haunt uses the word "immediately", while the scenario text does not. The check will be harder than usual because of the Haunt.

3. Then you arrange yourself in such a way that the Haunt is both in front of you and next to your character card. This is because I'm assuming all these different places aren't meant to be different. The important thing is the Haunts still add 1 to the difficulty of all your checks, irrespective of having been told to put them somewhere else.

4. Then you count the number of Haunts that you can see around the table, including your own, roll d6, add the numbers together and compare it to 5.

5. Finally, you might then encounter Iesha. If you're Kyra you can then read all the other text on the card, but otherwise you just roll some dice and hope not to lose your whole hand.

Does this look right? I searched for other threads about this, but the only thing that was ever confirmed was not to pull d6 additional Haunts out of the box. Some asked the question but never got a confirmed response and none seemed to put the entire sequence together.

I can't quote the rule book to you regarding your question and interpretation, but I can say that this is how I interpret and play the Haunt cards.

That Iesha Foxglove card is a real b*tch. I've found this particular scenario the hardest to successfully complete so far having played all of the Perils of the Lost Coast, Burnt Offerings and The Skinsaw Murders.

Just wanted to say (write?) that I will not be submitting a PC for this campaign BUT I am looking forward to reading along on these old-school adventures.

I hope you all have a blast!

4d6: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1, 3) = 11 = 10
4d6: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 5, 6) = 20 = 16
4d6: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 1, 6) = 10 = 9
4d6: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 4, 6) = 21 = 17
4d6: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 2, 2) = 12 = 10
4d6: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 2, 1) = 10 = 9

It seems we've gone inactive. Does the automatic system base it on the last time the DM posted then?

I think "auto deactivation" is a result of no one (not just the DM) posting in the game play section for 90 days.

You might try "dotting" the game play section and see what happens.

I am not going to apply for this game (I'm not a big fan of PbP gaming) but I wanted to give a virtual "Thumbs Up!" for starting this old-school game.

I remember playing this module when I was about 11 or 12 years old. It's an interesting adventure and I plan to read along.

That's all well and good but when are we going to get Rappan Athuk for 5e?!?

I have been wanting to play this mega-dungeon of death for a while now but don't want to play it using PF and haven't seen anyone run it for S&W.

I agree that WoTC did a very nice job of making all of the classes in the PHB (almost) equally attractive, but that book benefited from the extensive play test done for 5E. I would imagine that the new options in SCAG will not be as thoroughly play tested and, therefore, subject to greater variability in their relative power.

I am actually happy to see a few more subclasses available, especially for some of the classes which only got two options in the PHB and one of them was often "weaker" than the other and, therefore, rarely used (e.g. Circle of Land Druid vs. Circle of Moon Druid).

I just hope that they are able to avoid the all too common problem where new options are better than core options. I can imagine a scenario where every player is using the new subclasses/archetypes from SCAG because they are OP compared to the PHB.

Loved psionics ever since I saw them nestled in the back of the original Player's Handbook. I love how they mesh with fantasy and make grumpy grognards grumpier.

Glad to see 5e carrying on the tradition.

I just realized that my post was inappropriate for this thread and probably came across as trolling or thread-crapping. It was not intended as such but if anyone viewed it that way, I apologize.

I would never want to tell someone else how to play the game the "right" way or suggest that they are engaged in "badwrongfun" but my original post may have come across that way. Again, I apologize if I gave offense.

In the spirit of the random nature of the feature, I would probably make a d20 roll whenever the Sorcerer cast a spell and use the result to determine if they needed to roll for a potential Wild Surge. Depending on how frequently I wanted to see this take place I would use a target number of 10, 12 or 15 as the "DC" to determine if a roll was called for. I think I would also add the level of the spell just cast by the Sorcerer so that higher level magic would be more likely to potentially trigger a Wild Surge.

As an example, if I choose to set the DC at 12 and the Sorcerer casts a 3rd level spell, I would roll a d20 and if I rolled a 9 (+3 for 3rd level spell = 12) or higher on the d20 I would have the player roll for a possible Wild Surge. I think it might also be good idea to have a Wild Surge take place on a number equal to or less than the spell level cast. So, a first level spell would only call for an actual roll on the Wild Surge table if the player rolled a 1 on the d20, while a 5th level spell would do so on a roll of 1-5 on the d20.

Psionics...ugh.

I've hated Psionics since the first time I saw them tucked away in the very back of the 1E PHB. I hate them for the same reason I don't like Monks in D&D: they just feel out of place for the game I want to play. If I wanted to play a game with psionics, I would play something like Gamma World where it seems more appropriate.

I really hope psionics don't become "core" and allowed for play in Adventurer's League.

/crotchety old grodnard rant

Well, that's unfortunate. I hope my dropping from the game didn't create a cascade effect. I fully intended to read along to see how the game progressed.

Well...I need to go ahead and withdraw from this game.

Unfortunately, I sometimes get excited by a really cool sounding campaign and forget that I do not enjoy the process of Play-by-post gaming. I just need to admit that I probably won't be around for the long haul on this game so it would be better to acknowledge that right now and bow out before things get going.

I fully intend to read along and see how this game plays out and I hope everyone has a blast. Have a great game everyone!

Logan1138 aka Andalin Oakrunner

Well...I need to go ahead and withdraw from this game.

Unfortunately, I sometimes get excited by a really cool sounding campaign and forget that I do not enjoy the process of Play-by-post gaming. I just need to admit that I probably won't be around for the long haul on this game so it would be better to acknowledge that right now and bow out before things get too far along.

Perhaps, Maro's seedy past has caught up with him and the security officers drag him away for more interrogation and extradition?

I fully intend to read along and see how this game plays out and I hope everyone has a blast. Have a great game everyone!

Logan1138 aka Maro Trask

Well...I need to go ahead and withdraw from this game.

Unfortunately, I sometimes get excited by a really cool sounding campaign and forget that I do not enjoy the process of Play-by-post gaming. I just need to admit that I probably won't be around for the long haul on this game so it would be better to acknowledge that right now and bow out before things get going.

Have a great game everyone!

Logan1138 aka "Ty" Darkmoon.

Well...I need to go ahead and withdraw from this game.

Unfortunately, I sometimes get excited by a really cool sounding campaign and forget that I do not enjoy the process of Play-by-post gaming. Add to that my distaste for Pathfinder and I just need to admit that I probably won't be around for the long haul on this game so it would be better to acknowledge that right now and bow out before things get going.

I fully intend to read along and see how this game plays out and I hope everyone has a blast. Have a great game everyone!

Logan1138 aka Katani

Well, I think in general the people that have severe allergic reactions to shifts from the 3.x paradigm just don't come to this part of the forum, so you're getting the opinions of people that like the system, or are at least open-minded/interested.

Yup.

As with most E-3PO droids, its exclusivity throughout the galaxy has resulted in a haughty personality, but the damage sustained causes it to temporarily take on that of a forgotten Sith Lord.

I eagerly look forward to seeing this dynamic in action during game play! :D

Just wondering, how is Chainmail playing a Gnome Illusionist/thief? There are no Gnomes nor Illusionists in Swords & Wizardry to my knowledge.

I am not complaining at all, in my 1st Edition days I was the only person at my table who played gnomes or Illusionists. Just curious how this will work since there are no "official" rules for the race or class.

"Yes sir he did indeed fall down the flight of steps twice when we arrested him. If I hadnt seen it myself I wouldnt believe it either."

I think our characters are going to get along quite well... :D

Just wanted to let you know that I am still interested in this game. I was "out-of-pocket" all of yesterday and am now trying to decide whether to play a rogue or wizard/sorcerer. I should have a completed PC up in the next day or two.

Welcome Master Trask, I think the rebels could definitely use someone with your ... unique abilities <ahem>.

In all seriousness, that's an awesome name and i LOVE the two descriptons we've gotten so far.

BTW, here's a little intro video I put together. Enjoy!

Dude, that opening crawl vid was totally sweet! Did you make that yourself? If so...how did you do that?

I saw Star Wars in 1977 when I was 5 years old (the first movie I can recall watching) and I was totally blown away by the opening crawl followed by that massive Star Destroyer sailing across the screen. Best opening to a movie...EVER.

I forgot to mention in my original post that Threepio was my favorite Star Wars character, too. However, I really didn't want to be completely useless in combat so I went with "the not-a-player who thinks he's a player" rogue archetype for the comedy relief Threepio usually provided.

Name: Maro Trask

Template: Outlaw

Attribute emphasis: Perception and Dexterity (ranged only)

Fun facts: Lando Calrissian meets Austin Powers. Fancies himself a ladies man but...doesn't quite have it. Silver-tongued rogue who prefers to talk his way out of a fight if he can but is reasonably adept with a blaster just in case he's dealing with Trandoshans or Gamorreans. Card sharp wanted in 4 systems...or so he claims.

I don't know if it qualifies as a "main" PbP site but one that I have seen is Myth Weavers

Need to roll for gold...

Gold: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 6) = 13 * 10 = 130 gp

I decided to go with a HP tank and play a Ranger (two HD at first level FTW!).